Oorlog in Libië #100: We gaan weer demonstreren in Tripoli.

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23 rebels killed in fighting in eastern Libya

Associated Press= MISRATA, Libya (AP) — A Libyan doctor says 23 rebels have been killed in fighting outside the eastern oil town of Brega.

Suleiman Rafathi, a doctor at the hospital in the town of Ajdabiya where the casualties were brought, says 26 people also were wounded in the battle Monday 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 between forces loyal to Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi and rebels seeking to overthrow him.

No further details of the fighting were immediately available.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

MISRATA, Libya (AP) — 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.

The German foreign ministry said Guido Westerwelle was meeting with the Transitional National Council to deepen relations with the rebels and their nascent government.

Should the Germans recognize the council as the legitimate governing power in Libya, it would mark yet another big diplomatic boost for the rebels who rose up four months ago 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."

In addition, the NATO blockade of ports still under government control and alliance control of Libyan airspace 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.

NATO, meanwhile, has stepped up bombing of Gadhafi's compound in the center of Tripoli, striking it again on Sunday, along with a military airport in eastern Tripoli. The government did not immediately report casualties or damage.

The rebels' Transitional National Council scored a political success, meanwhile, winning 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.

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Libyan rebels breakout toward Tripoli

Associated Press= MISRATA, Libya (AP) — Libyan rebels Monday broke out toward Tripoli from the opposition-held port of Misrata 140 miles to the east, cracking a government siege as fighters across the country mounted a resurgence in their four-month-old revolt against Moammar Gadhafi.

The rebels gained a diplomatic boost as well when the visiting the German foreign minister said the nascent opposition government was "the legitimate representative of the Libyan people." Guido Westerwelle was visiting Benghazi, the capital of the rebel-held east of the country, to open a liaison office and hand over medical supplies.

He stopped short of full diplomatic recognition of the Transitional National Council, as has the United States, awaiting the ouster of Moammar Gadhafi from his more than 40-year rule in the oil-rich North African country.

Germany has refused to participate in NATO airstrikes in Libya and withheld its support for the U.N. resolution that allowed the attacks.

What started as a peaceful uprising against Gadhafi has become a civil war, with poorly equipped and trained rebel fighters taking control of the eastern third of Libya and pockets of the west.

But the fighting had reached a stalemate until last week when NATO began the heaviest bombardment of Gadhafi forces since the alliance took control of the skies over Libya under a U.N. resolution to protect civilians from Gadhafi's wrath. NATO has been pounding Gadhafi military and government position with increasing vigor and the rebels are again on the move.

Gadhafi's power has been considerably degraded by the NATO attacks as well military and government defections.

In London, Libyan analysts reported Monday that Gadhafi had lost another close official who defected and fled the country.

Sassi Garada, one of the first men to join Gadhafi when he took power, left Libya through Tunisia, according to Noman Benotman, a Libyan analyst in London who was in contact with his friends and family. Guma el-Gamaty, U.K. organizer for Libya's interim council, also confirmed the defection.

There were initial reports that Garada fled to Britain, where he has several family members, but Benotman said Garada was in Switzerland.

British officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss immigration and security matters, said they could not confirm whether Garada was in the U.K. Swiss Foreign ministry spokeswoman Carole Waelti told AP the government was "not aware of the possible presence of Mr. Garada in Switzerland."

Garada reportedly passed up several military promotions over the years to stay out of the limelight and serve Gadhafi, said Benotman, who works as an analyst for the London-based Quilliam Foundation.

Garada is also from Libya's Berber minority, which has often fought the Arab majority to have their language and customs protected. Many Berbers occupy the Western mountains of Libya, where Garada had been in charge of trying to neutralize tensions, el-Gamaty said.

It is not known why Garada defected or when, but he is one in a growing list of senior officials who have fled the country, suggesting Gadhafi may be losing his grip on power.

Last month, Shukri Ghanem, the Libyan oil minister and head of the National Oil Co., crossed into neighboring Tunisia.

Others who have defected include Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa, one of Gadhafi's earliest supporters; Interior Minister Abdel-Fatah Younes; Justice Minister Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, and Ali Abdessalam Treki, a former U.N. General Assembly president. A number of ambassadors and other diplomats also have resigned.

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 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 seven each minute. Dafniya is about 20 miles (30 kilometers) west of Misrata

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

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.

In other diplomatic developments, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke again against the Libyan regime, telling the nations of Africa on Monday to sever links with 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 cease-fire and then leave Libya.

In a lighter moment, the Gadhafi was shown on Libyan television 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.

The television report 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.

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Zuid-Afrika: NAVO misbruikt VN-resolutie voor politieke moord

De NAVO misbruikt een resolutie van de Verenigde Naties (VN) onder het mom van bescherming van Libische burgers tegen het leger van dictator Muammar Kaddafi. Dat doet ze om regimeverandering door te voeren en politieke moorden te plegen, meent de Zuid-Afrikaanse president Jacob Zuma.

'Wij hebben sterk de indruk dat Resolutie 1973 wordt misbruikt. We hebben ons uitgesproken tegen wangebruik van de goede bedoelingen van de resolutie', aldus Zuma tijdens een toespraak in het parlement. Volgens de president heeft de NAVO de grenzen van de resolutie overschreden.

Resolutie 1973 werd in maart aangenomen en machtigt onder meer lidstaten om militairen in te zetten voor bescherming van burgers in Libië.

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‘Gaddafi akkoord met eerlijke verkiezingen in Libië’
De Libische leider Gaddafi wil instemmen met het houden van eerlijke verkiezingen onder internationaal toezicht. Dat zegt zijn zoon Saif al-Islam vandaag in een interview met de Italiaanse krant Corriere della Sera.

Saif stelt in het interview dat de verkiezingen binnen drie maanden gehouden kunnen worden. “Het belangrijkste is dat de verkiezingen eerlijk verloopt en dat er geen verdenkingen van stemfraude”, aldus Saif. Volgens de oudste zoon van kolonel Gaddafi is er geen twijfel mogelijk dat zijn vader gekozen zal worden. “Ik heb geen twijfel dat een overweldigende meerderheid van de Libiërs de opstandelingen zien als fanatieke islamitische fundamentalisten en terroristen, die zijn opgehitst door de Franse president Sarkozy.”

Hoewel het onduidelijk is in hoeverre Gaddafi serieus is met zijn voorstel, lijkt het ‘onwaarschijnlijk’ dat de internationale gemeenschap akkoord zou willen gaan met het houden van verkiezingen onder Gaddafi, zegt onze buitenlandredacteur Marc Leijendekker:

“Voor de coalitie is dit geen aanvaardbare optie, want die streeft naar de val van Gaddafi. Voor Gaddafi zelf is het allicht een poging om te redden wat er te redden valt. Maar de coalitie staat op het standpunt dat er geen vrije verkiezingen mogelijk zijn zolang Gaddafi aan de macht is.”

Russische gezant in Tripoli voor gesprekken met regime

Een gezant van de Russische president Medvedev arriveerde vanochtend in Tripoli om gesprekken te voeren met een aantal belangrijke regeringsfunctionarissen, waaronder de minister-president en de minister van Buitenlandse Zaken. Rusland vreest dat de NAVO afkoerst op de inzet van grondtroepen in Libië en wil een poging doen om te bemiddelen in het conflict. Gezant Mikhail Margelov zei te verwachten dat de gesprekken niet gemakkelijk zullen zijn.

De NAVO bombardeerde vanochtend vroeg opnieuw het gebied rondom de compound van Gaddafi. Een serie bombardementen deed volgens journalisten in Tripoli de ramen van omliggende huizen trillen en ook was er rook te zien. Het is onduidelijk welke doelen precies getroffen zijn en of er slachtoffers zijn gevallen.