Tuesday, May 24, 2011

NATO blitz fails to break Libyan stalemate

Western powers, despite stepping up diplomatic support for the opposition and sharply escalating the air campaign against forces loyal to Libyan strongman Muammar Qadhafi, are finding it hard to break the stalemate in Libya.
In a visible surge on Tuesday, NATO aircraft heavily bombed the area surrounding Mr. Qadhafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound in central Tripoli without pause for about 30 minutes. Witnesses counted at least 20 loud explosions. Several fires lit up the night sky after the bombing.

NATO said precision-guided bombs were used to strike a facility housing vehicles used to attack civilians.
Denying NATO's claims of pin-pointed strikes, Libyan authorities said the heavy bombardment had caused civilian casualties. Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said strikes on buildings used by army volunteers had killed three people and wounded dozens.
Attack helicopters
NATO's fire-power in Libya is expected to acquire more teeth in the coming days. French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet said on Monday France and Britain would deploy attack helicopters as part of the air campaign. Unlike fighter jets, these machines can fly slow and low, picking up their targets methodically.
However, helicopters are more vulnerable to ground fire, and their use becomes optimal only when rival air defence weaponry has been significantly impaired.
Analysts say without the deployment of ground troops, air power alone may be insufficient to break the military stalemate that has set in.
Anti-Qadhafi forces control the oil-rich eastern coastal strip, and portions of Libya's Nafusa Mountains to the west.
However, the Qadhafi forces have fortified in the west, despite the recent loss to the opposition of war-battered Misurata, Libya's third largest city.
After talks on Monday in Benghazi with Jeffrey Feltman, visiting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, opposition spokesman Abdel-Hafidh Ghoga said: “We have tried very hard to explain to them [western powers] that we need the arms, we need funding, to be able to bring this to a successful conclusion at the earliest possible time and with the fewest humanitarian costs possible.”
Raising diplomatic support several notches, Mr. Feltman said President Barack Obama had invited the Libyan opposition to open its office in Washington.
But stopping short of fully recognising the opposition Transitional National Council (TNC), Mr. Feltman said: “We are not talking to Qadhafi and his people. They are not talking to us. They have lost legitimacy. We are dealing with people that we consider to be legitimate and representative and credible.”
Mr. Feltman also said the U.S. administration was working with Congress to divert some of the sanctioned regime's frozen assets to the opposition for humanitarian purposes.
In line with the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973, whose stated purpose is to protect civilian lives, Mr. Feltman said the U.S. had provided $53.3 million “non-lethal” aid to address Libya's humanitarian crisis. 
The Hindu

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