Outgunned Libyan Rebels Scatter, World Mulls Sending Arms
Loyalist forces overran the Libyan oil town of Ras Lanuf on Wednesday, scattering outgunned rebels as world powers debated arming the rag-tag band of fighters seeking to oust Moammar Gadhafi.
Agence France Presse reporters quoting rebel fighters said Gadhafi's troops swept through Ras Lanuf, strategic for its oil refinery, blazing away with tanks and heavy artillery fire soon after dawn.
Panicked rebels fled in their hundreds through Uqayla, 20 kilometers east of Ras Lanuf, calling for coalition air strikes on Gadhafi's forces, before driving further away from the front lines through the oil town of Brega and on towards the main city of Ajdabiya, 120 kilometers away.
"We want two things: that the planes drop bombs on Gadhafi's tanks and heavy artillery; and that they (the coalition forces) give us weapons so we can fight," rebel fighter Younis Abdelghaim told AFP.
The 27-year-old, who was holding a Russian AK-47 assault rifle and French flag, said it seemed as if the coalition had halted its air strikes for two days coinciding with a London conference on the Libyan crisis.
"We want the French to bomb the (Gadhafi) soldiers," said another fighter, Ali Atia al-Fatouri, as the sound of shelling and gunfire grew louder.
On Tuesday the rebels came within 100 km of Sirte, the strongman's hometown, before encountering fierce resistance which reversed an advance launched when Britain, France and the United States started U.N.-mandated air strikes on March 19.
Under barrages of artillery fire, rebel fighters stampeded down the coastal road in clouds of dust, many fleeing aboard pickup trucks.
They huddled down in Ras Lanuf overnight but soon after dawn Gadhafi's forces launched their onslaught.
British Prime Minister David Cameron refused Wednesday to rule out arming the rebels after French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said at a London conference the previous day that France is prepared to hold discussions on the issue.
Asked in parliament what Britain's policy was on arming the rebels, given the existence of a United Nations arms embargo on Libya, Cameron replied: "We do not rule it out but we have not taken the decision to do so."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow believed that foreign powers did not have the right to arm the rebels under the mandate approved by the U.N. Security Council.
Belgium, too, voiced its opposition to arming Libya's rebels, warning that the move could alienate Arab nations.
Belgian Foreign Minister Steven Vanackere, whose country has deployed fighter jets as part of a NATO-led campaign to protect Libyan civilians, said providing weapons to the insurgents would be "a step too far."
"This would cost us the support of the Arab world," he said.
And in Beijing, China's President Hu Jintao warned French President Nicolas Sarkozy that air strikes on Libya could violate the "original intention" of the U.N. resolution authorizing them if civilians suffer.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that although U.N. sanctions prohibit the delivery of arms to Libya, the ban no longer applies.
"It is our interpretation that (U.N. Security Council Resolution) 1973 amended or overrode the absolute prohibition on arms to anyone in Libya, so that there could be a legitimate transfer of arms if a country should choose to do that," she said.
A spokesman for the rebel Transitional National Council, Mustafa Ghuriani, told reporters in the Benghazi "it would be naive to think we are not arming ourselves" to match the weaponry deployed by Gadhafi loyalists.
But he declined to confirm or deny that France and the United States were offering to supply arms, saying only that unspecified "friendly nations" were backing the rebels.
NATO's top commander revealed that there was no alliance representative on the ground in Libya to work with rebel forces and that he had no orders to supply the opposition with weapons.
Admiral James Stavridis also said the alliance was working to get a clearer picture of the opposition, amid intelligence reports showing "flickers" of a possible al-Qaida presence.
U.S. President Barack Obama, who has laid out a moral imperative for protecting Libyan civilians caught in the battle, also said he did not rule out arming the rebels.
"I'm not ruling it out. But I'm also not ruling it in. We're still making an assessment partly about what Gadhafi's forces are going to be doing," Obama said.
Obama said the "noose" was tightening around the Libyan strongman, but noted that Gadhafi did not appear to be seeking to negotiate an exit from Libya yet, despite the bombardment of his forces.
But he added he believed Gadhafi would eventually quit.
"Our expectation is that as we continue to apply steady pressure, not only militarily but also through these other means, that Gadhafi will ultimately step down," he said.
Opening the London talks, Cameron said the air strikes were helping to protect civilians from "murderous attacks" by Gadhafi's forces especially in the western rebel-held town of Misrata.
"Gadhafi is using snipers to shoot them down and let them bleed to death in the street," Cameron told the conference.
A rebel spokesman reached by telephone in Misrata said Libya's third city, 214 kilometers east of Tripoli, had been blasted on Wednesday again by Gadhafi's forces, while a medic said 18 people were killed in fighting the previous day.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Britain is expelling the Libyan military attaché and four other diplomats for intimidating opposition groups in London.
"To underline our grave concern at the regime's behavior I can announce to the house that we have today taken steps to expel five diplomats at the Libyan embassy in London including the military attaché," Hague told parliament.
A Foreign Office spokesman said the expelled diplomats were thought to be strong supporters of Gadhafi.
Source: Agence France Presse
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