Libya in trouble: More NATO bombs rain on Tripoli as AU is gobbsmacked
African Union is irrelevant as NATO unleash terror on Libya
NATO rained scores of bombs on the Libyan capital in a rare daytime assault throughout Wednesday, but Moammar Gaddafi responded swiftly with a vow that his people would never surrender.
Huge explosions rattled windows and nerves across Tripoli during a bombardment that lasted from late morning to early evening. Jets buzzed overhead, and plumes of dark gray smoke billowed into the sky. The Libyan government said 60 bombs fell on the city, killing 29 people. Reporters in Tripoli counted about 35 explosions.
President Obama said that NATO had made significant progress during its campaign and that it was “just a matter of time” before Gaddafi was forced from power.
But Gaddafi phoned Libyan state television late in the afternoon to call his supporters onto the streets “in their millions” to show their defiance. “We will not surrender,” he said. “We have only one choice, until the end: Victory or death, it doesn’t matter.”
After Gaddafi’s four-minute address, cars sped past the Rixos Hotel where foreign journalists are staying, honking their horns and waving the green flags of the Libyan government. A few hundred people gathered outside Gaddafi’s sprawling Bab al-Aziziyah headquarters complex, and a smaller crowd also assembled outside the Rixos, shouting slogans and repeatedly firing Kalashnikov rifles into the air.
“We are stronger than your missiles, stronger than your planes, and the voice of the Libyan people is louder than explosions,” Gaddafi said, adding that he was ready to send 250,000 to 500,000 armed Libyans to cleanse the country of the rebels, whom he called “armed gangs” and “bastards.”
Libya in Trouble
Tuesday has been widely reported to be Gaddafi’s 69th birthday, but neither government nor NATO officials seemed aware of the significance of the date.
The Libyan leader has mostly been in hiding since his son Saif al-Arab and three of his grandchildren were reportedly killed in a NATO airstrike in April. He was last glimpsed on state television in late May, when he met with visiting South African President Jacob Zuma.
NATO said it was hitting the epicenter of Gaddafi’s military command-and-control facilities in Tripoli and warned that the bombing campaign would intensify. “We’re turning up the pressure on the Gaddafi regime,” said an official who was not authorized to give his name.
The Libyan government said NATO had struck “military and semi-military” sites, including centers for the Popular Guard and the Revolutionary Guard, two militias responsible for internal security. Officials also showed journalists one building inside Bab al-Aziziyah that had been leveled; reporters spotted a body in the rubble.
Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said NATO leaders were “losing their heads” and complained that not a single representative from Britain, France, Italy or the United States has asked to visit Libya and talk to the government since the crisis began.
Libya: Gaddafi says no surrender
“No one has ever talked to us from the countries that are bombing us,” he said. “Isn’t that weird?”
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