Cries of support at pro-Gadhafi rally in Tripoli

AP – In this photo taken on a government-organized tour Libyan women chant and hold Moammar Gadhafi's portraits …

By ADAM SCHRECK, Associated Press – 5 mins ago

TRIPOLI, Libya – Supporters of Moammar Gadhafi rallied Thursday in Tripoli after the Libyan leader lashed out at NATO over civilian casualties, calling the alliance "murderers" following an airstrike on the family home of a close associate.

A few hundred supporters, most of them women, gathered in the capital's Green Square hours after the late-night speech, vowing to defend the Libyan leader against rebels seeking to oust him and NATO forces giving them air support.

Gadhafi also warned the alliance that its more than three-month mission in Libya is a "crusader's campaign" that could come back to haunt the West.

"What you are doing will rebound against you and against the world with destruction, desolation and terrorism. You are launching a second crusader war that might extend to Africa, Europe and America," he said in an audio address first aired on Libyan state television late Wednesday.

"Go on and attack us for two years, three years or even 10 years. But in the end, the aggressor is the one who will lose. One day we will be able to retaliate in the same way, and your houses will be legitimate targets for us," Gadhafi added.

The defiant address was the first from the Libyan leader since NATO targeted a compound Monday owned by Khoweildi al-Hamidi, a longtime regime insider whose daughter is married to one of Gadhafi's sons.

Gadhafi blasted the alliance for that strike, calling NATO "criminals" and "savages" and asking rhetorically: "Is this house a military target?"

Libya says 19 people, including at least three children and other civilians, were killed in that strike near the town of Surman, some 40 miles (60 kilometers) west of Tripoli. NATO has called the compound a "command and control" center and says it regrets any civilian deaths.

That bombing came a day after NATO acknowledged that one of its airstrikes may have slammed into a civilian neighborhood in Tripoli. Libyan officials said nine civilians were killed in that strike, though a family member told The Associated Press at the scene that five people died.

NATO is investigating what happened in the Tripoli neighborhood strike and insists it goes to great lengths not to harm civilians.

A coalition including France, Britain and the United States began striking Gadhafi's forces under a United Nations resolution to protect civilians on March 19. NATO assumed control of the air campaign over Libya on March 31. It's joined by a number of Arab allies.

Meanwhile, judges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, said they will rule Monday on whether to order the arrest of Gadhafi for allegedly orchestrating deadly attacks on civilians.

A warrant would turn Gadhafi into an internationally wanted war crimes suspect at risk of detention if he ever ventured outside Libya.

A judicial panel will also announce whether it will issue arrest warrants for Gadhafi's son Seif al-Islam and intelligence chief Abdullah al-Sanoussi.

Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo alleges Gadhafi's forces attacked civilians in their homes, shot at demonstrators, shelled funeral processions and deployed snipers to kill people leaving mosques during the violent crackdown on rebels.

The International Committee of the Red Cross on Thursday began sea transfer of Libyans separated from their families by the fighting. The humanitarian organization, aided by the Libyan Red Crescent, said it plans to take three boatloads of people from Tripoli to the de facto rebel capital of Benghazi. Others will be taken in the opposite direction.

Rebels control the eastern third of the country and pockets in the west. Libyans living in rebel-held areas are largely cut off from their countrymen in areas under Gadhafi's control.

Italy, which is participating in the NATO campaign, expressed concern Wednesday about the accidental killing of civilians in alliance airstrikes and called for a suspension in hostilities to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid.

But NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in a video message on the NATO website the alliance would press on with its mission in Libya because stopping would mean more civilians could lose their lives.

"Remember, the Gadhafi regime began this conflict by attacking its own people with sustained and systematic violence — not NATO," Rasmussen said.

In the Czech capital, Prague, British Prime Minister David Cameron told reporters the coalition needs to be patient and persistent in the Libya mission, countering growing skepticism in the West over the military campaign.

"Time is on our side. Time is not on the side of Col. Gadhafi, who is losing his leading military commanders, who has lost his foreign minister, who has lost his oil minister, who's lost most of his country, who is losing in the west of the country where the rebellion is growing," Cameron said.

Reports of civilian deaths in NATO strikes have provoked intense anger among Gadhafi supporters.

Pro-Gadhafi demonstrators rallying in Tripoli on Thursday railed against NATO for striking civilians. Some women at the demonstration came armed, vowing to fight to defend their country and its leader.

"Everyone is training (to fight) since high school for a day like today," said dentist Hanin Khalil, 30, an aging Beretta submachine gun slung over her shoulder. "Not only (I) have a weapon. All people have their weapons to protect themselves from NATO."

Despite the heavy security presence, not everyone in the iconic central square was behind the longtime Libyan leader.

One young man in a white compact car driving around the square spotted two Western journalists and yelled in English from the passenger seat.

"Gadhafi, he go down," he said while pointing his thumb toward the ground as the car sped away.

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Associated Press writers Maamoun Youssef in Cairo and Don Melvin in Brussels contributed to this report.

Fighting erupts in Zlitan, Turkey offers Gaddafi exit

Reuters – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton meets with Mahmoud Jibril, executive bureau chairman of …

By Sherine El Madany – 2 hrs 54 mins ago

BENGHAZI (Reuters) – Heavy fighting between pro-Gaddafi troops and rebels broke out in a Libyan city just 160 kilometres east of Tripoli, potentially opening the coastal road to the capital, just as cracks appeared among NATO allies.

Gaddafi forces also shelled for the first time the world heritage-listed city of Gadamis, some 600 kilometres southwest of the capital on the Tunisia and Algerian border, opening a new front in the five-month long civil war.

World powers gave mixed signals on how the deadlocked civil war might play out, with Russia trying to mediate reconciliation. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday he had offered a "guarantee" to Gaddafi if he left Libya, but received no reply.

With diplomacy stalling, rebels said fighting was erupting on new fronts.

Ahmed Bani, a military spokesman in Benghazi, told Reuters clashes had broken out in Zlitan on Thursday and resumed on Friday with Gaddafi forces killing 22 rebels.

Zlitan is one of three towns that are under government control between the rebel-held Misrata and the capital and were it to fall could act as a stepping stone to allow the anti-Gaddafi uprising to spread from Misrata, the biggest rebel outpost in western Libya, to Gaddafi's stronghold in Tripoli.

"Large numbers of troops are surrounding Zlitan from all directions and are threatening its residents with having their women raped by mercenaries if they do not surrender," Bani said, adding the rebels controlled parts of the city.

GADAMIS OASIS TOWN ATTACKED

Rebels also said the oasis town of Gadamis with a population of about 7,000 people, mainly Berber, was under attack after an anti-government protest in the old Roman city on Wednesday.

"Gadamis is being shelled by Gaddafi forces, according to witnesses in the town," spokesman Juma Ibrahim said from the rebel-held town of Zintan in the Western Mountains region.

"This is a retaliation to anti-regime protests," he said.

The old town was de-populated by Gaddafi in the 1990s and its inhabitants moved into modern buildings. It was not clear if the attack targeted the old town, a labyrinth of narrow, underground passages and houses known as the "Pearl of the Desert."

The accounts in Zlitan and Gadamis could not be independently verified and the Gaddafi government did not immediately comment.

In the besieged port city of Misrata, a doctor at the Hekma hospital said 31 people were killed and 110 wounded in government shelling on Friday.

The fighting comes after the United States accused some NATO allies on Friday of failing to pull their weight in the campaign against Muammar Gaddafi's forces, as the Libyan leader kept up shelling of the rebel-held town of Misrata.

"The mightiest military alliance in history is only 11 weeks into an operation against a poorly-armed regime in a sparsely-populated country -- yet many allies are beginning to run short of munitions, requiring the U.S., once more, to make up the difference," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in a valedictory speech at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

Gates's exasperation has been echoed by rebels, who control the east of the country and some other areas but do not appear to pose an imminent threat to Gaddafi's rule.

TURKISH GADDAFI GUARANTEE

Turkey, which is a member of NATO, said Gaddafi had no way out, but to leave Libya and offered the him an exit.

"We ourselves have offered him this guarantee, via the representatives we've sent. We told him we would help him to be sent wherever he wanted to be sent. We would discuss the issue with our allies, according to the response we receive. Unfortunately we still haven't got a response from Gaddafi."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, appearing at the Abu Dhabi meeting of the Libya contact group on Thursday, said talks were under way with people close to Gaddafi who had raised the "potential" for a transition of power but added: "There is not any clear way forward yet."

Under pressure to come up with plans for a transitional government while still in disarray, the rebels have said the onus is on foreign powers to hasten assistance.

"Our people are dying," rebel Oil and Finance Minister Ali Tarhouni said. "So my message to our friends is that I hope they walk the walk."

Gaddafi describes the rebels as al Qaeda terrorists and says foreign intervention is a front for a grab at the country's oil.

Mikhail Margelov, Russia's Africa envoy, who travelled to Benghazi on Friday, said he would go to Tripoli as soon as NATO provided a corridor through its Libyan no-fly zone.

(Additional reporting by Peter Graff in Tripoli, Joseph Nasr in Rabat; Writing by John Irish; Editing by Ralph Boulton)

NATO strike kills Gadhafi's son but leader escapes

AP – This photo distributed by China's Xinhua news agency shows the damage of the house of Libyan leader Muammar.

By KARIN LAUB and BEN HUBBARD, Associated Press Karin Laub And Ben Hubbard

TRIPOLI, Libya – Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi escaped a NATO missile strike in Tripoli that killed one of his sons and three young grandchildren, a government spokesman said early Sunday. Hours later, Gadhafi's forces shelled a besieged rebel port in a sign that the airstrike had not forced a change in regime tactics.

NATO's attack on a Gadhafi family compound in a residential area of Tripoli late Saturday signaled escalating pressure on the Libyan leader who has tried to crush an armed rebellion that erupted in mid-February. Libyan officials denounced the strike as an assassination attempt and a violation of international law.

It also drew criticism from Russia, which accused the alliance of going beyond its U.N. mandate to protect Libyan civilians by trying to kill Gadhafi. "More and more facts indicate that the aim of the anti-Libyan coalition is the physical destruction of Gadhafi," said Konstantin Kosachyov, a Russian lawmaker who often serves as a mouthpiece for the Kremlin's views on foreign affairs.

The alliance acknowledged that it had struck a "command and control building," but insisted all its targets are military in nature and linked to Gadhafi's systematic attacks on the population.

"It was not targeted against any individual," NATO spokeswoman Carmen Romero said Sunday, adding the report of the deaths remained unconfirmed.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, without confirming fatalities, also told the British Broadcasting Corp. that the strike was in line with the U.N. mandate to prevent "a loss of civilian life by targeting Gadhafi's war-making machine."

The attack struck the house of one of Gadhafi's younger sons, Seif al-Arab, when the Libyan leader and his wife were inside, said Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim. Seif al-Arab, 29, and three of Gadhafi's grandchildren, all younger than 12, were killed.

Journalists taken to the walled complex of one-story buildings saw heavy bomb damage. The blast had torn down the ceiling of one building. Dust and smoke rose from the rubble, which included household items such as smashed toilet bowls, bathroom sinks and furniture among the broken walls and demolished floors.

When news of the deadly strike spread, rebels honked horns and chanted "Allahu Akbar" or "God is great" while speeding through the western city of Misrata, which Gadhafi's forces have besieged and subjected to random shelling for two months, killing hundreds. Fireworks were set off in front of the central Hikma hospital, causing a brief panic that the light would draw fire from Gadhafi's forces.

Some rebels questioned the veracity of the claim, saying the regime could be trying to discredit the international military campaign.

"We don't know if it is true or not because Gadhafi is a liar. He is probably trying to put pressure on international community. I will only believe it if you put the body in front of me," said Khaled al-Urfi, a 34-year-old metalworker.

Gadhafi, who has been in power for more than four decades, has fought fiercely to put down an uprising against his regime that began with protests inspired by a wave of Mideast unrest and escalated into an armed rebellion. But the two sides have been locked in a stalemate, with Gadhafi holding much of the western half of the country and the rebels maintaining their eastern stronghold.

NATO warplanes have been carrying out airstrikes in Libya for the past month as part of a U.N. mandate to protect Libyan civilians.

On Sunday morning, Gadhafi's troops shelled Misrata's port as a Maltese aid ship, the Mae Yemanja, unloaded food and medical supplies, said Ahmed al-Misalati, a truck driver helping move the cargo.

"We were still working this morning when they started firing rockets," said al-Misalati. "Some fell in the ocean, some on the pavement, some in the warehouses, and in the water in front of the boat."

The boat quickly embarked back to sea, he said.

Last week, regime loyalists attempted to mine Misrata's harbor to close the besieged city's only link to the world.

Moammar Gadhafi and his wife, Safiyah, were in Seif al-Arab's house in the capital's Garghour neighborhood when it was hit by at least one bomb dropped from a NATO warplane, according to Ibrahim.

Seif al-Arab Gadhafi, was one of the youngest of Gadhafi's seven sons and brother of the better known Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, who had been touted as a reformist before the uprising began. The younger Gadhafi had spent much of his time in Germany in recent years and was not involved in Libyan power structures as were many of his siblings.

Seif al-Arab, who studied and partied for years in Munich, had several run-ins with law enforcement there.

In 2007, he even saw his house and hotel suite raided by police over allegations of illegally possessing weapons despite his claims of enjoying diplomatic immunity.

Between November 2006 and July 2010 police led investigations against Gadhafi's son on ten accounts, ranging from speeding incidents to bodily harm and possession of illegal weapons, Bavaria's state justice ministry confirmed last month.

All the investigations against him, however, were dropped.

German media reported that Gadhafi's son returned to Libya in February and Bavaria's Interior Ministry later said he had been declared a persona-non-grata.

Seif al-Arab "was playing and talking with his father and mother and his nieces and nephews and other visitors when he was attacked for no crimes committed," Ibrahim said.

The government spokesman said the airstrike was an attempt to "assassinate the leader of this country," which he said violated international law. "The leader himself is in good health," Ibrahim said.

In addition to his eight biological children, Gadhafi also had an adopted daughter who was killed in a 1986 U.S. airstrike on his Bab al-Aziziya residential compound — retaliation for the bombing attack on a German disco in which two U.S. servicemen were killed. The U.S. at the time blamed Libya for the disco blast.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a Gadhafi ally, condemned Saturday's deadly strike, calling foreign military intervention in Libya "madness." He said he believes "they order they've given is to kill Gadhafi.

In Misrata, rebel fighters were rejoicing.

Standing outside an improvised triage unit in a tent in the parking lot, medic Abdel-Moneim Ibsheir considered the strike a form of justice.

"Gadhafi was not far away, meaning he's not safe," he said as occasional explosions could be heard throughout the embattled city. "It's just like our children getting hit here. Now his children are getting hit there."

In Tripoli, dozens danced, waved and clapped in unison at the Bab al-Aziziya compound early Sunday to show support for the regime. Heavy bursts of gunfire were heard in Tripoli after the attack.

The fatal airstrike came just hours after Gadhafi called for a mutual cease-fire and negotiations with NATO powers to end a six-week bombing campaign. NATO rejected the offer, saying the alliance needed "to see not words but actions."

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Associated Press writers Ben Hubbard in Misrata, Libya, Juergen Baetz in Berlin, Slobodan Lekic in Brussels and Lynn Berry in Moscow contributed to this report.