por admin » Mié Mar 09, 2011 1:38 pm
Las fuerzas de Gadhafi ganan terreno mientras el mundo delibera la implementacion
del no-fly zone. Es decir se resguardara el espacio aereo para que Gadhafi no pueda atacar a los rebeldes
MIDDLE EAST NEWSMARCH 9, 2011, 1:28 P.M. ET
Gadhafi's Forces Make Gains as Tripoli Makes Appeals
By MARGARET COKER and SAM DAGHER in Tripoli and TAHANI KARRAR-LEWSLEY in Dubai
WSJ's Jerry Seib and Neil Lipschutz report with a stalemate looming in Libya between Gadhafi-backed forces and rebels, the U.S. and its allies still have a No-Fly Zone on the table to potentially force a peaceful governmental transition.
Forces loyal to Col. Moammar Gadhafi seized the central square of a rebel-held city near the capital, as Libyan officials appeared to begin a campaign to block international efforts to pressure the government.
As the U.S., the European Union and other governments looked into options for intervention, including imposing a no-fly zone over Libya as well a wider economic sanctions, pro-government forces halted rebels' drive on Tripoli with a heavy barrage of rockets in the east and threatened to recapture some towns where key oil facilities are located.
Government forces seized control of the downtown city square in Zawiya, 30 miles west of Tripoli, from opposition fighters on Wednesday afternoon.
The patch of land had become symbolic ground for rebels in Zawiya, who had held it for two weeks despite a military siege against their town and multiple bloody clashes launched by the larger government military forces. Zawiya had been cut off from the rest of the country since Sunday, when the government began its siege against the city.
Journal Community
Forces loyal to Col. Gadhafi struck an oil pipeline and oil storage facility, as they pounded rebels with artillery and gunfire in at least two major cities, killing at least four people, officials told the Associated Press.
There were reports of an explosion with a giant yellow fireball from the area of the Sidr oil facility, 360 miles east of Tripoli. Three columns of thick smoke rose from the area, apparently from burning oil.
Mustafa Gheriani, an opposition spokesman, said government artillery hit a pipeline supplying Sidr from oil fields in the desert. He said an oil storage depot was also hit, apparently by an airstrike, the AP reported.
Related Video
Rebels Under Heavy Bombardment in Libya
News Hub: Libya No-Fly Zone: Will It Fly?
Prayers Turn to Protests in Tripoli
Libyan Rebels Hold Their Position
There was growing evidence that Col. Gadhafi is supplying fresh arms to many tribes in the west who had pledged to defend his regime.
A Tripoli resident from Bani Walid, southeast of Tripoli, said he and his brother received calls from a leader in their tribe of Warfala, one of the largest in Libya, to collect weapons.
Meanwhile, a high-ranking member of the Libyan military landed in Cairo with a message for Egypt's interim military leadership from Col. Gadhafi, AP reported.
An Egyptian army official said Maj. Gen. Abdul-Rahman bin Ali al-Saiid al-Zawi, the head of Libya's logistics and supply authority, was asking to meet Egypt's military rulers.
There had been no public contacts between the Libyan regime and Egypt's ruling generals since the Libyan uprising broke out in mid-February, the AP said.
Two Libyan government aircraft entered European airspace, said a spokeswoman for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, who said she knew of no plans for senior Libyan government officials to meet NATO defense ministers who were due to meet in Brussels Thursday afternoon.
European Union foreign ministers were also scheduled to meet in Brussels Thursday.
As his forces escalated their offensive, Col. Gadhafi maintained a defiant tone, saying in a Turkish television interview that Libyans would fight back if Western nations imposed a no-fly zone to prevent his regime from using its air force to bomb rebels and civilians.
Col. Gadhafi said imposing the restrictions would prove the West's real intention was to seize his country's oil wealth.
"Such a situation would be useful," he said. "The Libyan people would understand their real aims to take Libya under their control, to take their freedoms and to take their oil and all Libyan people will take up arms and fight."
In Tripoli Wednesday night, a virtual curfew was in effect, with most streets deserted. Internet service was still shut down throughout western Libya, leaving most of the two million residents of the capital and in neighboring cities offline, and crippling their communications with the outside world.
The government cut off Internet service last Thursday, ahead of what was expected to be a day of large antigovernment demonstrations in the rally.
Banking services in Libya were severely curtailed by new regulations announced Wednesday by the Central Bank requiring all foreign currency transactions to get Central Bank approval.
Regional Upheaval
Track events day by day.
View Interactive
Uprising in the Middle East
See photos from protests from Algeria to Yemen.
View Interactive
Mideast Mosaic
A look at the economic and political status of selected countries facing unrest in North Africa and the Middle East.
View Interactive
More photos and interactive graphics
The European Union is expected to announce measures on Friday to widen the scope of its sanctions on Libya that are almost certain to include a freeze of assets held in Europe by the Libyan central bank and the country's sovereign-wealth fund.
The freeze would be broadened beyond the top Libyan officials already subject to EU sanctions.
The U.S. Treasury, seeking to target Col. Gadhafi, has already sanctioned Libyan investment abroad that the U.S. said was linked to the Libyan leader.
Libya's central bank governor Farhat Bengdara suggested such measures would harm the Libyan people.
Mr. Bengdara, who has been outside Libya since Feb. 22, said Wednesday that he has been in touch with the U.S. Treasury, the EU and other institutions in a bid to soften any freeze on the central bank's assets.
"I took the decision to travel to Istanbul to contact the European Union, IMF, World Bank and U.S. Treasury and to try to do my best to stop the sanctions that would freeze the central bank's money," he said.
He said Libya's revenues have fallen dramatically because of the country's inability to export oil. If payments to the central bank for oil shipments are frozen, it will cause further difficulties, he said.
"We are trying our best to make the case that any sanctions should not affect the Libyan population, it should not make it difficult for people to import food," Mr. Bengdara said.
Meanwhile, state television also announced that the central government in Tripoli was offering a bounty of 500,000 Libyan dinars ($400,000) to anyone who captures and hands over to the central government the head of the Benghazi-based rebel administration, former justice minister Mustafa Abdul Jalil.