Al-Hayat

Efforts in order to avoid forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi from attacking civilians have been complicated by weather and the regime’s decision to hide military equipment in populated areas and employ civilians as human shields in Misrata and other areas, NATO Brig. Gen. Marc van Uhm said Tuesday.

Rebel leaders have criticized NATO’s efforts in recent days, saying civilians and rebel forces in Misrata and elsewhere have suffered under hellish attacks from pro-Gadhafi forces with little proof of NATO air power overhead.

Van Uhm, chief of allied operations at NATO, defended the organization’s efforts, saying warplanes under NATO command flew 58 strike missions on Monday, firing weapons and striking pro-Gadhafi targets on 14 of them.

He did not immediately have figures on previous days, but NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said the warplanes had conducted 334 strike sorties since taking command of the mission on March 23.
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* Libya
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“I think you can safely say the operational tempo continues unabated,” she said.

Since the effort to enforce the U.N. resolution began in mid March, airstrikes have taken out approximately 30 % of Gadhafi’s military capacity, van Uhm said.

Monday’s airstrikes hit an active rocket launcher in al-Brega, an air defense installation and military vehicles near Misrata and ammunition storage facilities, van Uhm said.

Rebels complained Monday that they had not heard or seen NATO airstrikes for more than 24 hours, despite withering attacks from pro-Gadhafi forces in Misrata and al-Brega, among other places.

“You are supposed to be implementing this resolution and clearly it’s not implemented in Misrata, it’s not implemented in Zintan or Zahwiya and we’re wondering, where are they?” rebel spokesman Mustafa Gheriani said Monday.

Gadhafi’s forces did actually contain the upper hand Tuesday in renewed fighting in the oil town of al-Brega, where rebel forces were staging a panicked retreat under intense artillery bombardment, according to CNN reporters in the area.

The setback is the latest for a ragtag opposition that has struggled to maintain ground against the better trained and equipped Gadhafi forces, and it comes less than a day after rebel commanders said they had the longtime Libyan leader’s forces on the defensive in al-Brega.

Meanwhile, more carnage spread in the besieged city of Misrata on Monday, and a rebel spokesman said a NATO-led effort to help protect civilians seemed nonexistent in some areas.

Five people were killed and 24 wounded in Monday clashes between pro-Gadhafi forces and rebels in Misrata, two sources told CNN.

Residents have said the city has been choked off by Gadhafi troops, with electricity and access to food cut off.

“Every day, life is getting more and more difficult,” said one resident, who is not being identified for safety reasons. “There are long queues of people for bread and fuel.”

He added some are not leaving their homes for days at a time.

“There are snipers shooting at something that moves,” the resident said. “They are manipulating the main road leading to beyond the city.”

With no end to Libya’s bloody war in sight, a resource close to the country’s leadership said a Libyan envoy is floating the idea of ruler Moammar Gadhafi passing his power to a son — a notion rebel leaders deem merely cosmetic.

Below the proposal, Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, 38, would help to usher in swift reform, the cause said. But Saif Gadhafi has become one of his father’s most outspoken defenders since the start of the unrest, despite once being regarded as a leading reformer in the Libyan government.

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But a proposal to shift power from Gadhafi to his second-oldest son is “a ridiculous offer,” said Ali Aujali, a former Libyan ambassador to the America who now represents the Libyan opposition in Washington.

“Libyan people, they decided, and they will not return back at all (to) Gadhafi or any member of his family,” Aujali said. “His sons, they are killers — they’re just like their father.”

Aujali said the rebels are likely to offer Moammar Gadhafi and his family safe passage out of Libya in an exchange for an end to the fighting — but that’s as far as their offer goes.

Though Gadhafi has revealed no indications of appeasing the opposition or relinquishing his capacity to anyone outside his family, cracks in his armor have surfaced.

His longtime confidant and foreign minister, Moussa Koussa, recently fled to London and announced his resignation from the Libyan government. On Monday, the U.S. Treasury Department lifted the freeze on Koussa’s assets following his split from Gadhafi.

Gheriani said while the conflict persists, he remains hopeful for a revolution.

“I think the Gadhafi regime is crumbling from within,” he said. “I think if you look at history, people will invariably win, and I think victory will be ours.”