Muammar Qaddafi set his sights on Benghazi as his forces moved into the gateway city of Ajdabiya, 100 miles (161 kilometers) from the rebel capital, and prospects faded for a NATO-led no-fly zone to stop their advance.
The embattled Libyan dictator, appearing with a small group of supporters on state-run television, vowed to fight rebel “rats” and said “we are going to destroy them.” In Benghazi, hundreds of his opponents, watching the broadcast projected on the side of a building, jeered and threw shoes in disrespect, according to a live video feed shown by Al Jazeera television.
The Libyan army is “coming to secure Benghazi,” state-run television said. Pro-Qaddafi forces attacked on two sides of Ajdabiya using airstrikes and artillery, forcing out-gunned rebels and civilians to flee ahead of troops in tanks and personnel carriers, the Associated Press reported. There were conflicting reports on who controlled the city after nightfall.
With rebels on the defensive, the Group of Eight foreign ministers failed to agree yesterday on imposing a no-fly zone. The head of the rebels governing council, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, said on Al Arabiya television that the debate over a no-fly zone “doesn’t concern us now” and he called on Libyans to defend their cities.
“The international community has failed us,” Ahmed Omar, a rebel army commander, said by phone from Benghazi.
Qaddafi ‘Emboldened’
The message being sent to Qaddafi is that “western resolve is weakening and this has emboldened him,” Shada Islam, a Middle East and Asia expert at the Brussels-based Friends of Europe policy group, said in a telephone interview. “If we’d acted three weeks ago we wouldn’t be where we are now.”
Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-15/qaddafi-forces-near-benghazi-as-rebel-says-world-failed-us-.html
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