Tag: Libyan

Libya rebels Wednesday captured Misrata airport after a fierce battle with Moamer Kadhafi's troops, marking their first significant advance after weeks of being pinned...

A NATO bombing blitz which the alliance insisted was not aimed at Moamer Gaddafi rocked Tripoli on Tuesday, as rebels in besieged Misrata claimed...

An international meeting on Libya agreed Thursday to set up a new fund to aid Libyan rebels, with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton...

Libyan rebels controlling the east of the country have said that their economy will collapse by June unless France, Italy and the United States...

GENEVA - The UN human rights chief on Wednesday slammed the Libyan regime for the alleged use of cluster bombs in Misrata, saying such attacks on densely populated urban areas could be international crimes.
In a statement, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay "condemned the reported repeated use of cluster munitions and heavy weaponry by Libyan government forces in their attempt to regain control of the besieged city of Misrata."
She noted that one cluster bomb

GENEVA - The Libyan government's reported use of cluster munitions and heavy weapons in Misrata has caused substantial civilian casualties and may amount to crimes under international law, the United Nations said on Wednesday.
In a statement, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called for a halt to the siege of Misrata and condemned attacks, including a cluster bomb that exploded last week several hundred metres from the hospital in the western city.

BERLIN - NATO allies met in Berlin Thursday seeking to bridge differences over their campaign in Libya, as rebels fighting to topple Moamer Gaddafi reported an intensive bombing blitz by alliance warplanes. The port area of Libya's third city Misrata, meanwhile, came under heavy attack Thursday by Gaddafi's forces, who fired dozens of Grad missiles and tank shells which killed at least 13 people and injured 50, a rebel spokesman said. In Cairo, UN chief Ban Ki-moon called for a

AJDABIYA - Libyan rebels hoping to reclaim the key eastern town of Ajdabiya from forces loyal to Moamer Kadhafi milled around between a bombed-out tank and a bullet-riddled mosque on its outskirts Sunday.
The landmarks, a legacy of coalition air strikes and combat two weeks ago, and the sound fresh shelling on the far side of the city underlined how fortunes of war had turned against the insurgents in recent days. On Saturday, they had retreated in panic as Kadhafi's fighters

TRIPOLI - A Libyan government spokesman said the country is open to political reforms and elections, but Muammar Gaddafi must remain as the Libyan leader.
"We are ready for political solutions: constitution, election, anything, but the leader has to lead this forward," Mussa Ibrahim said.
The spokesman said the Libyan people, rather than other countries, must decide the country's future and whether the Libyan leader should stay or go.
He added no conditions could be

BRUSSELS - NATO refused to apologise Friday for a deadly airstrike on Libyan rebel tanks, saying that the military alliance was unaware that the opposition was using such vehicles.
"I'm not apologising," Rear Admiral Russell Harding, deputy commander of NATO's Libya operations, told a news briefing.
"The situation on the ground, as I said, was extremely fluid and remains extremely fluid. Up until yesterday we had no information that the TNC or opposition forces were using

AJDABIYAH - A NATO air strike killed at least five rebels near the Libyan port of Brega on Thursday, medics said, and insurgents reported Muammar Gaddafi's forces killed five more in a bombardment of besieged Misrata.
Wounded rebels being brought to the hospital in Ajdabiyah in rebel-held east Libya said their position was hit by an air strike on Thursday outside the contested port.
"It was a NATO air strike on us. We were near our vehicles near Brega," wounded fighter

Angelina Jolie has flown to North Africa to help as thousands of refugees flee the ongoing conflict in Libya. More than 400,000 people have crossed Libya's borders since fighting broke out between rebel groups and forces loyal to leader Muammar Gaddafi, while allied countries have also been carrying out air strikes in the area.
The Hollywood actress, who is a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations' refugee agency, travelled to the border of Libya and neighbouring Tunisia on

PARIS/AJDABIYA - Libyan Foreign Minister Mussa Kussa arrived in Britain on Wednesday, telling the British government that he had resigned from his post, as disagreement over arming the rebels battling Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi emerged with at least three of the countries enforcing the no-fly zone over the country opposing the idea.
Russia also criticised the proposal, amid dissent within NATO over the conduct of the whole Libyan operation. Both France and the US have raised

WASHINGTON - US Ambassador to United Nations Susan Rice said on Tuesday that the Obama administration has not ruled out arming Libya's rebels as an option for trying to end Muammar Gaddafi's 41-year rule.
Speaking a day after President Barack Obama defended his Libya strategy in a televised address, Rice said Gaddafi has shown no sign of leaving power without continued pressure from Western powers that have imposed a no-fly zone over Libya and used air strikes to constrain his

Libya's rebel interim National Council said on Tuesday it would hold free and fair elections to ensure a transition to democracy if leader Muammar Gaddafi were forced from power.
The council, based in the rebel-held eastern city of Benghazi, said it aspired to create a "modern, free and united state" in a statement issued ahead of a meeting of foreign ministers in London to discuss the future of Libya.
The eight-point statement said the oil-producing north African nation's

RABAT - Western forces bombed the southern Libyan city of Sabha at dawn on Monday, leading to several casualties. the Libyan state news agency reported.
"The crusader and colonial bombing targeted inhabited areas in the city of Sabha at dawn on Monday, causing the destruction of several houses," the agency reported. "Ambulances and firefighter teams rushed to those areas."
"Sources at the Health Ministry in Sabha spoke of several casualties among civilians in those areas."

BENGHAZI - Forces loyal to Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi were retreating on Saturday after rebels recaptured the key eastern town of Ajdabiya in their first significant victory since the launch of the Western-led airstrikes a week ago. US President Barack Obama said the international mission had saved countless innocents from a "bloodbath" threatened by Gaddafi, and the rebels thanked France for its role in the military blitz but said "outside forces" could now leave the country.