Gaddafi orders storm of Benghazi; U.N. meets

TRIPOLI/UNITED NATIONS, (Reuters) – Muammar Gaddafi  warned the rebel stronghold of Benghazi he would storm the city  in the night showing no mercy, while the United Nations moved  towards a resolution allowing air strikes to stop him.
“We will come zenga, zenga. House by house, room by room,”  he said in a radio address to the eastern city.
Thousands of residents of Benghazi gathered in a central  square, waving anti-Gaddafi tricolour flags and chanting  defiance of the man who has ruled the country for four decades.
“It’s over. The issue has been decided,” Gaddafi said,  offering pardon to those who lay down their arms. “We are coming  tonight…We will have no mercy and no pity with them.”
Gaddafi’s troops, far better armed than the rebels, appeared  to be still at least 100 km (60 miles) from Benghazi and it was  unclear if his threat to seize and purge the city in the night  was anything more than bluster. But Thursday saw three air raids  on the city, residents and a rebel spokesman said.
The threats, at the very least, raise the sense that a  decisive moment had come in an month-old uprising inspired by  rebellions against autocratic rule elsewhere in the Arab world.
The United Nations Security Council was preparing to vote on  Thursday night on a resolution, backed by Western and Arab  powers, that could open the way for air strikes to protect  civilians from retribution by the man who has ruled Libya for  four decades.
The draft, obtained by Reuters, submitted by France, Britain  and Lebanon, would authorise a no-fly zone and ‘all necessary  measures’ to protect civilians under threat.
It ruled out any “occupation force”; a nod both to Arab  sensitivities and to Western capitals such as London and  Washington already chastened by involvement in wars in  Afghanistan and Iraq.
“We are very concerned about the situation in Libya and the  violence that is being perpetrated by the Gaddafi regime against  its people,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
“We are acting with a great sense of urgency together with  our international partners to take the kinds of actions that we  believe will protect Libyan citizens and move towards a  situation where Gaddafi is no longer in power,” he said.
Paris believes there is enough support to pass the  resolution, scheduled for 2200 GMT. Military intervention could  follow within hours, a senior French diplomatic source said.