Gadhafi forces barrage rebels in east and west

March 8, 2011 - PRLog -- If Zawiya, on Tripoli's doorstep, is ultimately retaken, the contours of a stalemate would emerge — with Libya divided between a largely loyalist west and a rebel east as the world wrestles with the thorny question of how deeply to intervene.

President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron agreed to plan for the "full spectrum of possible responses" on Libya, including imposing a no-fly zone to prevent Gadhafi's warplanes from striking rebels. According to a White House statement, the two leaders spoke Tuesday and agreed that the objective must be an end to violence and the departure of Gadhafi "as quickly as possible."

A spokesman for the opposition's newly created Interim Governing Council in Benghazi, meanwhile, said a man who claimed to represent Gadhafi made contact with the council to discuss terms for the leader of four decades to step down. Mustafa Gheriani told The Associated Press the council could not be certain whether the man was acting on his own initiative or did in fact represent Gadhafi.

"But our position is clear: No negotiations with the Gadhafi regime," said Gheriani, who declined to say when contact was made or reveal the identity of the purported envoy.

Zawiya, a city of 200,000, was sealed off under a fifth day of a destructive siege, with conflicting reports of who was in control. A brigade led by one of Gadhafi's sons, Khamis, is believed to be leading the assault, shelling neighborhoods with tank and artillery fire from the outskirts and trying to push troops in to the city's central Martyrs Square where rebels had set up camp.

The city hospital has been overwhelmed with dead and wounded and many houses have been damaged, according to residents who escaped the past two days. One man who slipped out of the city on Monday said pro-Gadhafi forces had seized the central square.

An adviser to the Libyan Foreign Ministry in Tripoli on Tuesday also claimed that government troops were in control, raising the green flag over the square. The adviser, who is originally from Zawiya, said he was trying to mediate a cease-fire with remaining rebels. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.

But a resident of the nearby town of Sabratha said people who fled from Zawiya on Tuesday afternoon told him fighting continued, with rebels back in control of the square. He said they reported hit-and-run attacks between the two sides.

The fall of Zawiya to anti-Gadhafi residents early on in the uprising that began Feb. 15 had illustrated the initial, blazing progress of the opposition. The uprising swept over the entire eastern half of the country, breaking it out of the regime's control, and seized Zawiya and several other cities and towns in the northwestern pocket of the country where Gadhafi's regime was confined.

But the government could be regaining some balance and its capability to lash back with powerful force.

The battle is far from over and could be drawn out into a long and bloody civil war. The latest round of fighting on opposite ends of Libya's Mediterranean coast once again revealed the weakness and disorganization of both sides.

Even if it ends with Zawiya's recapture, the long siege of the city underlined the rebels' tenacity and the struggles of even a reportedly elite force like the Khamis Brigades to crush them.

At the same time, Gadhafi's regime has been using its air power advantage more each day to check a rebel advance west toward Tripoli on the main coastal highway leading out of the opposition-controlled eastern half of the country. The increasing use of air power underlines the vulnerability of the rebel forces as they attempt to march across open, desert terrain — but it also could prompt world powers to impose a no-fly zone over Libya to deny Gadhafi that edge.

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