‘Free Libya’ chants heard near capital
ASSOCIATED PRESS
An armed man stands on top of a captured tank in Zawiya, 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Tripoli, in Libya Sunday, Feb. 27, 2011. Hundreds of armed anti-government forces backed by military defectors in Zawiya, the city closest to the capital Tripoli, prepared Sunday to repel an expected offensive by forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi who are surrounding the city. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Libya's Moammar Gadhafi talks during a debate on the sidelines of celebrations marking the 30-year anniversary of the declaration of the "jamahiriya," or "rule of the masses, in Sabha, Libya Friday, March 2, 2007. Gadhafi said in an unusual debate Friday it was time for his long-isolated nation to open up to the world and that one day it won't need him as leader. Still, he touted the ruling ideology he has entrenched here for three decades as superior to Western democracy.
Associated Press
ZAWIYA, Libya
With residents shouting “Free, free Libya,” anti-government rebels who control this battle-scarred city nearest to the capital deployed tanks and anti-aircraft weapons Sunday to brace for an attack by troops loyal to Moammar Gadhafi. The Obama administration offered “any type of assistance” to Libyans seeking to oust the longtime leader.
Politicians in the opposition stronghold of Benghazi set up their first leadership council to manage day-to-day affairs, taking a step toward forming what could be an alternative to Gadhafi’s regime.
In the capital Tripoli, where Gadhafi is still firmly in control, state banks began handing out the equivalent of $400 per family in a bid to shore up public loyalty.
“The Libyan people are fully behind me,” Gadhafi defiantly told Serbian TV. Gadhafi has launched by far the bloodiest crackdown in a wave of anti-government uprisings sweeping the Arab world, the most serious challenge to his four decades in power. The United States, Britain and the U.N. Security Council all slapped sanctions on Libya this weekend.
A day after President Barack Obama branded Gadhafi an illegitimate ruler who must leave power immediately, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton kept up pressure for him to step down and “call off the mercenaries” and other troops that remain loyal to him.
“We are just at the beginning of what will follow Gadhafi. ... But we’ve been reaching out to many different Libyans who are attempting to organize in the east and as the revolution moves westward there as well,” Clinton said. “I think it’s way too soon to tell how this is going to play out, but we’re going to be ready and prepared to offer any kind of assistance that anyone wishes to have from the United States.”
Gadhafi’s son, Seif al-Islam, in an interview with U.S. television, insisted that his father won’t relinquish power and that Libya had not used force or airstrikes against its own people.
There were no reports of major violence or clashes Sunday, although gunfire was heard after nightfall in Tripoli.
In Libya’s second-largest city of Benghazi, politicians said Sunday they are setting up a council to run day-to-day affairs in the eastern half of the country under their control. It was seen as the first attempt to create a leadership body that could eventually form an alternative to the Gadhafi government.
Human-rights groups and European officials have put the death toll since unrest began in Libya nearly two weeks ago at hundreds — perhaps thousands — although it has been virtually impossible to verify the numbers.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was due in Washington today to discuss with Obama other possible measures that could be taken against the Libyan government.