Gaddafi can stay in Libya if he quits: rebel chief

By Maria Golovnina | Reuters – 3 hrs ago

Head of National Transitional Council Mustafa Abdel Jalil speaks during an interview …

A rebel prepares his improvised 68mm rocket launcher on the front line, in the village …

6 hrs ago

BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Muammar Gaddafi is welcome to live out his retirement inside Libya as long as he gives up all power, Libya's rebel chief said in the clearest concession the rebels have so far offered.

Gaddafi has resisted all international calls for him to go and said he will fight to the end, but members of his inner circle have given indications they are ready to negotiate with the rebels, including on the Libyan leader's future.

Gaddafi is still holding on to power, five months into a rebellion against his 41-year rule and despite a NATO bombing campaign and an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for crimes against humanity.

"As a peaceful solution, we offered that he can resign and order his soldiers to withdraw from their barracks and positions, and then he can decide either to stay in Libya or abroad," rebel leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil told Reuters in an interview.

"If he desires to stay in Libya, we will determine the place and it will be under international supervision. And there will be international supervision of all his movements," said Jalil, who heads the rebels' National Transitional Council.

Speaking in his eastern Libyan stronghold of Benghazi, Abdel Jalil, Gaddafi's former justice minister, said he made the proposal about a month ago through the United Nations but had yet to receive any response from Tripoli.

He said one suggestion was that Gaddafi could spend his retirement under guard in a military barracks.

Abdel Jalil's remarks stirred an emotional reaction in Benghazi, with a small protest against any talks with Gaddafi breaking out outside a hotel, and the rebel council playing down any speculation about a widening rift among its leaders.

Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, a council vice chairman, told reporters an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court against Gaddafi had now made any such proposal null and

Meanwhile Turkey, which had close economic ties to Gaddafi before the uprising, pledged $200 million in aid for the rebels Sunday, in addition to a $100 million fund announced in June.

The rebels say they need more than $3 billion to cover salaries and other needs over the next six months.

"Public demand for reforms should be answered, Gaddafi should go and Libya shouldn't be divided," Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in Benghazi.

He added that Turkey saw the rebel council as the people's legitimate representative.

DEADLOCK

The conflict in Libya is close to deadlock, with rebels on three fronts unable to make a decisive advance toward the Libyan capital and growing strains inside NATO about the cost of the operation and the lack of a military breakthrough.

Previous attempts to negotiate a peace deal have foundered, but some analysts say Gaddafi's entourage -- if perhaps not the Libyan leader himself -- may look for a way out as air strikes and sanctions narrow their options.

Gaddafi's daughter Aisha said last week her father would be prepared to cut a deal with the rebels though he would not leave the country.

But his son, Saif al-Islam, rejected calls for his father to quit Libya as the price of peace.

"To tell my father to leave the country, it's a joke. We will never surrender . We will fight. It's our country," he told French TV channel TF1.

"We have to fight for our country and you are going to be legitimate targets for us," he said of Western powers that have led air strikes against Libyan government forces.

In an address to supporters Friday, Gaddafi urged NATO to halt its bombing campaign or risk seeing Libyan fighters descend on Europe "like a swarm of locusts or bees."

Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi Ali Al-Mahmoudi -- part of a hardline camp which has clashed with Saif al-Islam on policy in the past -- said the Libyan people did not want Gaddafi to go.

"You see everyone, from small children to old men, all of them love Muammar Gaddafi, they all love him," he told Al-Arabiya television channel when asked if the Libyan leader would step down.

Libya's Jana news agency said Sunday Gaddafi had sent a message to German Chancellor Angela Merkel to mark Germany taking over the leadership of the U.N. Security Council, without giving further details. Germany said it had no knowledge of any such a letter.

On the battlefield, both sides continued to slug it out in a fight which has seen many casualties but, for the past few weeks, only small parcels of land changing hands.

A rebel spokesman in Misrata, about 200 km (130 miles) east of Tripoli, said two rebel fighters had been killed on the outskirts of the city, where they are struggling to push back government forces and advance on the capital.

"The (pro-Gaddafi) brigades heavily bombarded Dafniyah and Bourouia last night. Two revolutionaries were martyred and 12 others wounded," the spokesman, who identified himself as Oussama, said from Misrata.

On the front closest to Tripoli, in the Western Mountains region, NATO aircraft dropped leaflets on the government-controlled town of Garyan, warning residents to stay in their homes, said a rebel spokesman called Mohammed.

The alliance last week launched air strikes on the town, which lies on the edge of rebel-held territory.

The rebel spokesman also said there was fighting with heavy weapons Saturday between rebels and government forces around the village of Ghezaya, in the mountains near the border with Tunisia.

AFRICAN PEACE PLAN

Western governments and the rebels had hoped that African Union leaders would use a summit this weekend to join international calls for Gaddafi to quit.

But they did not do that, and also agreed that the African Union's 53 member states would not execute the international arrest warrant for Gaddafi, according to a document seen by Reuters.

While that may irk the West, it does leave open the possibility that Gaddafi could end the conflict by opting for exile somewhere in Africa.

(Additional reporting by Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers, Erika Solomon and Isabel Coles in Dubai, Lamine Chikhi in Tripoli, Tarek Amara in Tunis and David Lewis in Malabo; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Libyan rebels breakout towards Tripoli

AP – In this image taken from TV, showing rebel forces on the front line as they repel government troops......

By HADEEL AL-SHALCHI and MAGGIE MICHAEL, Associated Press – 50 mins ago

MISRATA, Libya – Government artillery rained down on rebel forces Monday but failed to stop their advance into key ground west of their stronghold at Libya's major port. As fighting raged for a fourth day, Germany's foreign minister paid a surprise visit to the rebel's de facto capital.

Guido Westerwelle met with officials of the Transitional National Council, telling members of the nascent rebel government that Germany recognized the council as "the legitimate representative of the Libyan people"

That position is similar to that of the United States, which has stopped short of outright diplomatic recognition of the council. The move was, nevertheless, another big diplomatic boost for the rebels and their four-month uprising to end Moammar Gadhafi's 40-year rule in the oil-rich North African country. Germany refused to participate in the NATO air mission over Libya and withheld support for the no-fly zone.

The rebels control roughly the eastern one-third of Libya as well as Misrata, the country's major port. The also claim to have taken parts of coastal oil center of Zawiya in the far west. That port city is 18 miles (30 kilometers) west of Tripoli and a prize that would put them in striking distance of the capital. Control of the city also would cut one of Moammar Gadhafi's last supply routes from Tunisia.

Despite rebel claims, government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said late Sunday that Gadhafi forces had driven off the attackers, and reporters taken to Zawiya saw secure streets and the green national flag flying over a central square. The insurgents, for their part, claimed a high-ranking Gadhafi commander was badly wounded in the fighting.

"The wishful reporting of some journalists that the rebels are gaining more power and more control of some areas is not correct," he said.

In the major fighting near Misrata on Monday, an Associated Press photographer at the rebel front lines said they had pushed along the Mediterranean Sea to within 6 miles (10 kilometers) of Zlitan, the next city to the west of Misrata. A rebel commander said his forces, using arms seized from government weapons depots and fresh armaments being shipped in from Benghazi, planned to have moved into Zlitan, by Tuesday.

Ali Terbelo, the rebel commander, said other opposition forces already were in Zlitan, trying to encircle Gadhafi troops. If the rebels take the city they would be within 85 miles (135 kilometers) of the eastern outskirts of Gadhafi's capital, Tripoli.

An AP reporter with rebel forces said shelling was intense Monday morning with rockets and artillery and mortar shells slamming into rebel lines west of Dafniya at a rate of about 7 each minute. Dafniya is about 20 miles (30 kilometers) west of Misrata

Officials at Hikma Hospital in Misrata said government shelling killed seven and wounded 49 on Sunday. New casualty figures were not available but ambulances were rushing from the Dafniya line back into Misrata.

The rebel thrust at Zawiya and movements farther east — near Misrata and Brega — suggested the stalemated uprising had been reinvigorated, and that Gadhafi's defenders may become stretched thin.

"Over the past three days, we set fire under the feet of Gadhafi forces everywhere," Col. Hamid al-Hasi, a rebel battalion commander, told AP. He said the rebels attacked "in very good coordination with NATO" to avoid friendly-fire incidents. "We don't move unless we have very clear instructions from NATO."

Rebels encountered a major setback, however, near the eastern oil town of Brega on Monday. Suleiman Rafathi, a doctor at the hospital in the town of Ajdabiya where the casualties were taken, said 23 rebels were killed and 26 wounded in a government ambush about 22 miles (35 kilometers) east of Brega.

The front lines between Brega and Ajdabiya have been relatively quiet in recent weeks, while fighting has raged in western Libya.

Rebel fighters appear to be rebounding with help from the NATO blockade of ports still under government control and alliance control of Libyan airspace. Both have severely crimped the North African dictator's ability to resupply his forces. And his control has been hard hit by defections from his military and government inner circle.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke again against the Libyan regime, telling the nations of Africa on Monday to sever links Gadhafi despite his long support and patronage for many African leaders.

In a speech on Monday to diplomats at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, Clinton said Africa should join most of the rest of the world in abandoning Gadhafi. She said the Libyan leader has lost all legitimacy to rule because of attacks on his own citizens.

She's urged all African leaders to demand that Gadhafi accept a ceasefire and then leave Libya. She also said they should expel pro-Gadhafi Libyan diplomats from their countries, suspend the operations of Libyan embassies and work with the Libyan opposition.

The rebel council also won recognition from the United Arab Emirates, adding a wealthy, influential Arab state to the handful of nations thus far accepting the insurgents as Libyans' sole legitimate representatives.

In a lighter moment, the Libyan leader was shown playing chess with the visiting Russian head of the World Chess Federation. The federation is headed by the eccentric Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who until last year was the leader of Russia's predominantly Buddhist republic of Kalmykia. He once claimed to have visited an alien spaceship.

Libyan state television showed Gadhafi, dressed all in black and wearing dark sunglasses, playing chess Sunday evening with his Russian guest.

Russia's Interfax news agency quoted Ilyumzhinov as saying Gadhafi told him he has no intention of leaving Libya despite international pressure.

It was unclear where the chess game took place. Gadhafi's compound in the center of Tripoli has been under NATO bombardment and was hit again Sunday.

Gadhafi had not been seen in public since mid-May, and Ilyumzhinov told him how pleased he was to find him healthy and well.

Libya forces try to halt rebel move toward capital

AP – An anti-Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi rebel, holds his anti-aircraft missile as he looks to the sky, …

By PAUL SCHEMM and MAGGIE MICHAEL, Associated Press Paul Schemm And Maggie Michael, Associated Press – 2 mins ago

BIN JAWWAD, Libya – Libyan helicopter gunships strafed opposition fighters as forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi pounded them with artillery and rockets Sunday, dramatically escalating a counteroffensive to halt the rapid advance of rebels toward the capital, Tripoli.

Another scene of heavy fighting was the city of Misrata, 120 miles (200 kilometers) east of Tripoli, where a doctor told The Associated Press 20 people were killed and 100 wounded. Residents said pro-Gadhafi troops punched into the city with mortars and tanks but were pushed out five hours later by rebel forces. The rebel commanders intentionally opened the way for government tanks to enter the city, then surrounded them and attacked with anti-aircraft guns and mortars, said Abdel Fatah al-Misrati, one of the rebels.

"Our spirits are high," he said. "The regime is struggling and what is happening is a desperate attempt to survive and crush the opposition. But the rebels are in control of the city," al-Misrati added.

With the counteroffensive intensifying, Libya sank deeper into chaos and heavy bloodshed while the international community appeared to be struggling to put military muscle behind its demands for Gadhafi to give up power. Britain said one of the most talked about ideas for intervention — the idea of a no-fly zone over Libya — is still in an early stage of planning and ruled out the use of ground forces.

"We call on the world to take action, to strike (Gadhafi's) powerful bases to rescue the civilians," one Misrata resident said. "He has all the power to smash the people."

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, have died since Libya's uprising began on Feb. 15, but tight restrictions on media make it near impossible to get an accurate tally. More than 200,000 people have fled the country, most of them foreign workers. The exodus is creating a humanitarian crisis across the border with Tunisia — another North African country in turmoil after an uprising in January that ousted its longtime leader.

Sunday's fighting appeared to signal the start of a new phase in the conflict, with Gadhafi's regime unleashing its air power on the poorly equipped and poorly organized rebel force trying to oust their ruler of 41 years. Resorting to heavy use of air power signaled the regime's concern that it needed to check the advance of the rebel force toward the city of Sirte — Gadhafi's hometown and stronghold.

If Sirte were to fall in rebel hands, it would give the anti-Gadhafi forces a massive morale boost and momentum that could carry them all the way to the gates of Tripoli.

The opposition force — estimated between 500 and 1,000 fighters — pushed out of the rebel-held eastern half of Libya late last week for the first time and has been cutting a path west toward Tripoli. On the way, they secured control of two important oil ports at Brega and Ras Lanouf.

On Saturday night, the rebels pushed as far west as the town of Bin Jawwad, about 110 miles (160 kilometers) east of Sirte. But after they reached it, they pulled back east about 30 miles to the town of Ras Lanouf for the night.

Unbeknownst to the opposition, pro-Gadhafi forces moved into Bin Jawwad overnight and when they rebels returned at daylight, they came under a barrage of fire from helicopter gunships and artillery and rockets from the ground. Associated Press reporters at the scene saw fierce battles raging throughout the day.

"We got thrown by bombs and snipers from the side roads that we can't see," recalled Jamal al-Karrari, a Libyan who abandoned his studies in the U.S. to join the uprising. "I didn't even use my Kalashnikov; I didn't find a target. All we were trying to do was escape and come back."

The rebels staged several offenses throughout the day, while unarmed spectators, many decorated with the rebel flag, cheered them on from the road. Each advance, however, was met with a withering barrage of cannon fire that threw the rebels back.

From the edge of Bin Jawwad where the rebels massed, a steady barrage of rockets and artillery fired by pro-Gadhafi forces thumped to the ground throughout the day to keep them from advancing. But the mood was still upbeat, with some of the opposition supporters draping themselves in the rebel flag.

At one point, about 50 rebel fighters were trapped inside a mosque, and their comrades who had retreated to the edge of the city suddenly surged forward in 20 pickup trucks to try to rescue them. They drove into the bombardment and one of the trucks was hit, sending a huge plume of black smoke into the air.

Rebel soldier Musa Ibrahim said Gadhafi's forces took hostages in the town in the morning.

"They took one of every family hostage to keep them from fighting," he said.

During the fighting, ambulances sped back east toward a hospital in nearby Ras Lanouf while rebel trucks, at least four of them mounted with multiple-rocket launchers, raced west to reinforce the front lines.

Six people were killed in the fighting for Bin Jawwad and a French journalist for France 24 TV was among 60 people wounded, hospital officials said.

The government also launched airstrikes against Ras Lanouf, the rebel controlled oil port 30 miles east of Bin Jawwad. A warplane attacked a small military base. Regime forces shelled rebel positions there with rockets and artillery.

In Misrata, a city east of the capital about halfway down the road to Sirte, residents said the rebels repelled a government counteroffensive to seize back control.

The regime forces attacked just before noon with tanks, mortars, artillery and anti-aircraft guns. A heavy gunbattle raged for about five hours and residents said they were choking on the smoke that clogged the air.

Abubakr al-Misrati, a doctor at Misrata hospital said 20 people were killed, 14 of them from Gadhafi's forces, and 100 injured.

In Tripoli, the capital of 2 million that is most firmly in Gadhafi's grip, residents awoke before dawn to the crackle of unusually heavy and sustained gunfire that lasted for at least two hours. Some of the gunfire was heard around the sprawling Bab al-Aziziya military camp where Gadhafi lives, giving rise to speculation that there may have been some sort of internal fighting within the forces defending the Libyan leader inside his fortress-like barracks. Gadhafi's whereabouts were unknown.

Libyan authorities tried to explain the unusually heavy gunfire by saying it was a celebration of the regime taking back Ras Lanouf and Misrata, though both places appeared to still be in rebel hands.

After the gunfire eased in the early morning, thousands of Gadhafi's supporters poured into Tripoli's central square for a rally that lasted all day, waving green flags, firing guns in the air and holding up banners in support of the regime. Hundreds drove past Gadhafi's residence, waving flags and cheering. Armed men in plainclothes were standing at the gates, also shooting in the air.

The uprising against Gadhafi, which began just days after President Hosni Mubarak was ousted by protesters in neighboring Egypt, is already longer and much bloodier than the relatively quick revolts that overthrew the longtime authoritarian leaders of neighboring Egypt and Tunisia.

In contrast, Libya appears to be sliding toward a civil war that could drag out for weeks, or even months. Both sides appear relatively weak and poorly trained, though Gadhafi's forces clearly have the advantage in terms of number and equipment.

The conflict took a turn late last week when the government opponents, backed by mutinous army units and armed with weaponry seized from storehouses — went on the offensive. At the same time, pro-Gadhafi forces have conducted counteroffensives to try to retake the towns and oil ports the rebels have captured since they moved out of the rebel-held east.

The regime has also fought throughout the weekend to retake control of Zawiya west of Tripoli — where bloody street battles were reported. Zawiya, just 30 miles from Tripoli, is the closest rebel-held city to the capital.

On Sunday, Zawiya residents said rebels were back in control of the city after a three-hour battle. Pro-Gadhafi forces entered in full force with tanks, anti-aircraft guns and mortars, firing them at people and buildings. Residents said the fighters seized weapons, ammunition, tanks and pickup trucks from the retreating forces.

They said the pro-Gadhafi forces had withdrawn to the outskirts of the city and they were bracing for a new offensive.

On Saturday, residents said the city was attacked by 26 tanks. But thousands went out to fight the attacking force at the square. One rebel said opposition fighters also took hostages on Saturday and shot and killed at least 10 of them in a hotel near the square.

"The determining factor in these battles is the mercenaries and regime fighters," said the rebel fighter. "Their motive is financial, no more and no less. This is the difference between them and someone like us who is defending his land and country."

"At the beginning (of fighting), our weapons were rudimentary. But every time they attack us, we seize their weapons," he said.

Most of the residents interviewed spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

The uprising has put Gadhafi back in a position he has known before — international isolation. The U.N. has imposed sanctions, and Libya's oil production has been seriously crippled by the unrest. The turmoil has caused oil prices to spike on international markets.

The U.S. is demanding Gadhafi give up power and has moved military forces closer to Libya's shores to back up its demand.

If the rebels continue to advance, even slowly, Gadhafi's heavy dependence on air power could prompt the West to try hurriedly enforce a no-fly zone over the country to prevent the regime from defeating the rebels.

However, enforcing a no-fly zone could take weeks to organize and, as U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said, it must be preceded by a military operation to take out Libya's air defenses.

British Foreign Minister William Hague urged Gadhafi to hand over power and put an "immediate stop" to the use of armed force against Libyans and give up power. He said a no-fly zone over Libya is still in an early stage of planning and ruled out the use of ground forces.

The rebels headquartered in the main eastern city of Benghazi have already set up an interim governing council that is urging international airstrikes on Gadhafi's strongholds and forces.

Hague said Sunday that a small British diplomatic team has left Libya after running into a problem while on a mission to try to talk to rebels in the eastern part of the country. The Foreign Office declined to comment on reports earlier in the day the team included special forces soldiers who had been detained in Benghazi by Gadhafi opponents.

Earlier, Hague echoed Defense Minister Liam Fox in telling the BBC it would be inappropriate to comment on an article in Britain's Sunday Times newspaper that soldiers were captured by rebel forces when a secret mission to put British diplomats in touch with leading opponents of Libya's embattled leader went awry.

___

Michael reported from Tripoli.