AJDABIYAH, Libya (Reuters) – Muammar Gaddafi’s jets bombed Libyan rebels yesterday in a counter-offensive that has pushed them back 100 miles (160 km) in a week, far outpacing diplomatic efforts to impose a no-fly zone to help the rebels.
There is now a very real possibility that by the time world powers agree on a response to the conflict, Gaddafi’s forces may already have won.
No consensus on help for the rebels emerged at a meeting of the 15 members of the UN Security Council in New York, or a meeeting of foreign ministers of the Group of Eight (G8) powers in Paris.
“Fundamental questions need to be answered, not just what we need to do, but how it’s going to be done,” Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin said in New York.
In Paris, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said the G8 wanted the Council to resume discussions as soon as possible, but that its ministers had not narrowed differences over a no-fly zone, which Russia and Germany are reluctant to approve.
Meanwhile, Libyan government artillery and tanks retook the small town of Zuwarah, 120 km (70 miles) west of Tripoli after heavy bombardment, resident Tarek Abdallah said by telephone.
Perhaps more significantly, they were shrinking the swathe of eastern Libya still held by revolutionary forces.
They captured the important eastern oil terminal town of Brega late on Sunday, and on Monday flew behind rebel lines to bomb Ajdabiyah, the only sizeable town between Brega and the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.
Road to Benghazi
Ajdabiyah commands roads to Benghazi and Tobruk that could allow Gaddafi’s troops to encircle Libya’s second city and its 300,000 inhabitants.
Soliman Bouchuiguir, president of the Libyan League for Human Rights, said in Geneva that if Gaddafi’s heavily armed forces broke through to attack Benghazi, there would be “a real bloodbath, a massacre like we saw in Rwanda”.
Saturday’s endorsement from the Arab League satisfies one of three conditions set by the Western NATO alliance for it to police Libyan air space, that of regional support. The other two are proof its help is needed and a Security Council resolution.
