* 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
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"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)
