MACTV News: Gaddafi defiant as West flexes military muscle, Posted by Menelik Zeleke

March 2, 2011 3:29:47 AM

* U.S. warships to sail into Mediterranean
* Gaddafi's son says "We are ready, we are not afraid"
* Italy sends aid, agencies warn of humanitarian crisis

By Maria Golovnina
TRIPOLI, March 2 (Reuters) - U.S. warships will pass through the Suez Canal on Wednesday on their way to Libya as Western nations put more pressure on Muammar Gaddafi to stop a violent crackdown and step aside.
The United States said Libya could sink into civil war unless Gaddafi quits amid fears that the uprising, the bloodiest against long-serving rulers in the Middle East, could cause a humanitarian crisis.
Gaddafi remained defiant and his son, Saif al-Islam, warned the West against launching military action. He said the veteran ruler would not step down or go into exile.
Italy said it was sending a humanitarian mission to neighbouring Tunisia to provide food and medical aid to as many as 10,000 people who had fled violence in Libya on its eastern border.
Tunisian border guards fired into the air on Tuesday to try to control a crowd of people clamouring to cross the frontier.
About 70,000 people have passed through the Ras Jdir border post in the past two weeks, and many more of the hundreds of thousands of foreign workers in Libya are expected to follow.
<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
More on Middle East unrest:
Western leaders call for Gaddafi to go
Western forces in region http://link.reuters.com/jen38r
Who controls Libya towns http://link.reuters.com/men38r
Latest graphic: http://r.reuters.com/fug38r
Interactive factbox http://link.reuters.com/puk87r <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

"Using force against Libya is not acceptable. There's no reason, but if they want ... we are ready, we are not afraid," Saif al-Islam told Sky television.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told U.S. lawmakers: "Libya could become a peaceful democracy or it could face protracted civil war." The United States said it was moving ships and planes closer to the oil-producing North African state.
The destroyer USS Barry moved through the Suez Canal on Monday and into the Mediterranean. Two amphibious assault ships, the USS Kearsarge, which can carry 2,000 Marines, and the USS Ponce, were in the Red Sea and are expected to go through the canal early on Wednesday.
U.S. RULES NOTHING OUT
The White House said the ships were being redeployed in preparation for possible humanitarian efforts but stressed it "was not taking any options off the table".
"We are looking at a lot of options and contingencies. No decisions have been made on any other actions," U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe sounded a note of caution, saying military intervention would not happen without a clear United Nations mandate.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, who said Britain would work with allies on preparations for a no-fly zone in Libya, said it was unacceptable that "Colonel Gaddafi can be murdering his own people using airplanes and helicopter gunships".
General James Mattis, commander of U.S. Central Command, told a Senate hearing that imposing a no-fly zone would be a "challenging" operation. "You would have to remove air defence capability in order to establish a no-fly zone, so no illusions here," he said. "It would be a military operation."
Analysts said Western leaders were in no mood to rush into the conflict after drawn-out involvements in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Gaddafi, a survivor of past coup attempts, told the U.S. ABC network and the BBC on Monday: "All my people love me," dismissing the significance of a rebellion that has ended his control over much of oil-rich eastern Libya.
REBELS SAY STRENGTH GROWING
Rebel fighters said the balance of the conflict was swinging their way. "Our strength is growing and we are getting more weapons. We are attacking checkpoints," said Yousef Shagan, a spokesman in Zawiyah, 50 km (30 miles) from Tripoli.
A rebel army officer in the eastern city of Ajdabiyah said rebel units were becoming more organized.
"All the military councils of Free Libya are meeting to form a unified military council to plan an attack on Gaddafi security units, militias and mercenaries," Captain Faris Zwei said. He said there were more than 10,000 volunteers in the city, plus defecting soldiers.
The New York Times reported that the rebels' revolutionary council was debating whether to ask for Western air strikes on some of Gaddafi's military assets under a United Nations banner.
The Times said Abdel-Hafidh Ghoga, the council's spokesman, declined to comment on its deliberations but said: "If it is with the United Nations, it is not a foreign intervention," which the rebels have said they oppose.
The Times said there was no indication the U.N. Security Council would approve such a request, or that Libyans seeking to oust Gaddafi would welcome it.
Despite the widespread collapse of Gaddafi's writ, his forces were fighting back in some regions. A reporter on the Tunisian border saw Libyan troops reassert control at a crossing abandoned on Monday, and residents of Nalut, about 60 km (35 miles) from the border, said they feared pro-Gaddafi forces were planning to recapture the town.
Mohamed, a resident of rebel-held Misrata, told Reuters by phone: "Symbols of Gaddafi's regime have been swept away from the city. Only a (pro-Gaddafi) battalion remains at the city's air base but they appear to be willing to negotiate safe exit out of the air base. We are not sure if this is genuine or just a trick to attack the city again."
Across the country, tribal leaders, officials, military officers and army units have defected to the rebels.
Tripoli is a clear Gaddafi stronghold, but even in the capital, loyalties are divided. Many on the streets on Tuesday expressed loyalty, but a man who described himself as a military pilot said: "One hundred percent of Libyans don't like him."
The U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday unanimously suspended Libya's membership of the U.N. Human Rights Council. A U.N. Security Council resolution on Saturday called for a freeze on Gaddafi's assets and a travel ban and refers his crackdown to the International Criminal Court.
The United States has frozen $30 billion in Libyan assets.
Libya's National Oil Corp said output had halved because of the departure of foreign workers. Brent crude prices surged above $116 a barrel as supply disruptions and the potential for more unrest in the Middle East and North Africa kept investors on edge.
Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper, citing unnamed U.S. sources, said British special forces were preparing to seize mustard gas and other potential chemical weapons in Libya.
It quoted unnamed British sources as saying they had not yet received a specific U.S. request for involvement, but officials said plans were being drawn up for "every eventuality." (Additional reporting by Yvonne Bell and Chris Helgren in Tripoli, Dina Zayed and Caroline Drees in Cairo, Tom Pfeiffer, Alexander Dziadosz and Mohammed Abbas in Benghazi, Yannis Behrakis and Douglas Hamilton; Christian Lowe and Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers, Souhail Karam and Marie-Louise Gumuchian in Rabat and Samia Nakhoul, William Maclean and Alex Lawler in London; writing by Janet Lawrence; editing by Philip Barbara)

Bahrain protesters occupy square, Libyans bury dead, Posted by Meosha Eaton

As reported by Reuters:

* Libyans bury their dead
* Bahrain police abandon main square to protesters
* Rights group says death toll in Libya now 84
* Bahrain union calls for strike on Sunday
(Updates Bahrain, Libya)

By Cynthia Johnston and Frederik Richter

MANAMA, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Protesters in Bahrain appeared to gain the initiative on Saturday and mourners buried their dead in western Libya as the wave of protest washing across the Arab world tested more of the region's longtime rulers. Unrest has spread from Tunisia and Egypt to Bahrain, Libya, Yemen and Djibouti, as people of one country after another lose their fear of oppressive, autocratic rulers and take to the streets demanding democratic change and economic opportunity.

Pro- and anti-government crowds in the Yemeni capital Sanaa hurled stones at each other and fired in the air, riot police corralled protesters in Algiers into a courtyard, and demonstrators clashed with security forces in Djibouti. In Bahrain, a key U.S. ally and home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet, thousands of protesters regained control of Pearl Square in Manama, after first troops and then riot police withdrew from the symbolically important traffic circle. [ID:nLDE71I0A1]

Up to 80 people hit by rubber bullets or affected by teargas fired by the police before their withdrawal were taken to a Bahrain hospital, a doctor said. The crown prince, charged by King Hamad on Friday with opening a dialogue with protesters, called for a national day of mourning and appealed for calm. He had earlier announced that all troops had been ordered off the streets -- meeting one of the conditions for talks spelt out by an ex-lawmaker of the main Shi'ite opposition bloc Wefaq. Ibrahim Mattar told Reuters the authorities must accept the concept of constitutional monarchy and pull troops off the streets before a dialogue could begin.

"Then we can go for a temporary government of new faces that would not include the current interior or defence ministers," he said. The government is led by the Sunni Muslim Al Khalifa dynasty, but the Shi'ite majority has long complained about what it sees as discrimination in access to state jobs, housing and healthcare, a charge the government denies. The United States and top oil producer Saudi Arabia see Bahrain as a Sunni bulwark against neighbouring Shi'ite regional power Iran.

In Libya, mourners in the eastern city of Benghazi were burying some of the dozens of protesters shot dead by security forces in the worst unrest of Muammar Gaddafi's four decades in power.
Human Rights Watch said 35 people were killed in the city late on Friday, adding to dozens who had already died in a fierce crackdown on three days of protests against Gaddafi's rule, inspired by the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. A security source said clashes were still under way on Saturday in the region between Benghazi and Al Bayda, 200 km away.

The area is "80 percent under control. A lot of police stations have been set on fire or damaged," the source said. New York-based Human Rights Watch said Friday's killings took to 84 its estimated death toll in three days of protests, mostly around Benghazi, against a ruling elite accused of hoarding Libya's oil wealth and denying political freedoms. The Benghazi-based newspaper Quryna said 24 people were killed in the city on Friday, shot when security forces fired to stop protesters attacking the police headquarters and a military building where weapons were stored.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague urged Libya to stop using force against protesters and asked Middle East governments to respond to the "legitimate aspirations" of their people. "I condemn the violence in Libya, including reports of the use of heavy weapons fire and a unit of snipers against demonstrators," Hague said in a statement. "This is clearly unacceptable and horrifying."

The spreading unrest -- particularly worries about its possible effects on the world No. 1 oil producer, Saudi Arabia -- helped drive Brent crude prices higher this week before other factors caused them to slip on Friday.
It was also a factor in gold prices posting their best weekly performance since December. Analysts say a difference between Libya and Egypt is that Gaddafi has oil cash to smooth over social problems. He is also respected in much of the country, though less so in the Cyrenaica region around Benghazi.

"There is no national uprising," said Noman Benotman, a former opposition Libyan Islamist based in Britain but currently in Tripoli. "I don't think Libya is comparable to Egypt or Tunisia. Gaddafi would fight to the very last moment," he said by telephone from the Libyan capital. In Yemen, one protester was killed and seven were hurt in clashes with supporters of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sanaa, a day after five people were killed in clashes between security forces and crowds demanding an end to Saleh's 32-year rule.

Saleh, a U.S. ally against a Yemen-based al Qaeda wing that has launched attacks at home and abroad, is struggling to end month-old protests flaring across the impoverished country.
In Algiers, police in riot gear crammed some 500 protesters into the courtyard of a residential block before they could reach May 1 Square in the city centre to start a banned march.
The main opposition parties did not take part in the protest, which was organised by human rights groups, trade unionists and a small opposition party.

This, like other recent demonstrations in Algeria for democratic change and better economic conditions, was too small to rattle the authorities, but there are signs that pressure is building within the ruling group for substantial change, including a new government line-up. The political uprising sweeping through the Middle East has also reached the tiny Horn of Africa state of Djibouti, where anti-government protesters clashed with security forces on Saturday for the second day running.

On Friday, thousands of protesters called for the removal of President Ismail Omar Guelleh, whose family has held sway in Djibouti since independence in 1977. Guelleh took office in 1999 and is expected to run for a third term in April 2011. Djibouti, a former French colony between Eritrea and Somalia, hosts France's largest military base in Africa and a major U.S. base. Its port is used by foreign navies patrolling busy shipping lanes off the coast of Somalia to fight piracy. Unemployment runs at about 60 percent.

(Additional reporting by Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers, William Maclean in London and Saleh Al-Shaibany in Muscat; Writing by Tim Pearce, editing by Angus MacSwan)