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UN gains access as Libya rebels lose ground in clashes
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UN gains access as Libya rebels lose ground in clashes
AFP - 26 minutes ago
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RAS LANUF, Libya (AFP) - – Residents of an eastern rebel town fled Monday fearing an attack by Moamer Kadhafi's forces, as the UN was sending an envoy to Tripoli and the US came under pressure to arm Libya's rebels.
As loyalist forces thwarted a rebel advance on Kadhafi's hometown and recaptured a key town, the Libyan strongman angrily accused France of interference in Libya's internal affairs and blamed Al-Qaeda for the unrest rocking his country.
Residents of the oil town of Ras Lanuf, the new front line after the rebels suffered a bitter defeat in the coastal hamlet of Bin Jawad further west, were seen fleeing eastward in cars towards Brega, captured by the rebels last week.
Staff at a local hotel said people were clearing the town "because they were heard there would be a battle."
Pro-Kadhafi forces on Sunday beat back rebels making a westward approach to Kadhafi's hometown of Sirte. Scene: Frustrated Libyan rebels angry at Bin Jawad defeat
Rebels also pulled back from Bin Jawad, occupied on Saturday, after clashes left seven dead and around 50 wounded, according to casualty lists at a hospital in the nearby town of Ajdabiya seen by AFP on Monday.
"We retreated from Bin Jawad. Ras Lanuf will be our line of defence," one rebel, Aqil al-Fars, told AFP.
Untold numbers of "injured and dying" in the western city of Misrata, meanwhile, prompted a UN demand for urgent access to the civilian population repeatedly shelled by Kadhafi tanks Sunday.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Kadhafi's foreign minister agreed to let a "humanitarian assessment" team visit Tripoli and he named a special envoy to deal with the regime, former Jordanian foreign minister Abdelilah al-Khatib to undertake "urgent consultations" with the Tripoli government. Scene: Tripoli celebrates regime 'victories'
"People are injured and dying and need help immediately," said UN emergency relief coordinator Valerie Amos. "I call on the authorities to provide access without delay to allow aid workers to help save lives."
Residents of Misrata, strategically located between the capital Tripoli and Sirte, said government tanks were shelling the town and warned of "carnage" if the international community did not intervene.
Washington is coming under mounting pressure to arm the rebels amid charges the administration of President Barack Obama missed chances to oust Libya's strongman in the early days of the popular uprising against his iron-fisted rule that started February 15. Related article: US under pressure to arm Libya rebels
Obama has insisted that all options, including military action, remain on the table with respect to Libya, where Kadhafi's forces have unleashed deadly airstrikes on rebels and civilians in efforts to crush the uprising in which thousands are feared dead.
With the administration cautioning that a decision on a no-fly zone was still far off, US lawmakers and former officials appearing coalesced around the likelihood that supplying weapons to the outgunned rebels was a way forward.
"I assume that a lot of weapons are going to find their way there (to rebels in Libya) from one means or another over the course of the next weeks," Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry told CBS's "Face the Nation."
A former US envoy to the United Nations, Bill Richardson, said it was time to "covertly arm the rebels" and enforce a no-fly zone over the north African country, to prevent Kadhafi using his air power against his own people.
Ali Errishi, Kadhafi's former immigration minister who joined the rebellion, voiced growing rebel frustration at a lack of international assistance for the ill-equipped force.
He told CNN the United States had missed an opportunity to oust the Libyan strongman by "dragging their feet" over aiding the rebels in the early days of the uprising, now approaching its fourth week. Focus: Echo of Balkans in US policy debate on Libya
"We asked, we don't want a no-fly zone actually, we just want air cover," Errishi said.
The New York Times reported late Sunday that US defence planners are preparing a range of land, sea and air military options in Libya in case Washington and its allies decide to intervene there,
Citing unnamed administration officials, the newspaper said just simple use of signal-jamming aircraft in international airspace could muddle Libyan government communications with military units. Focus: Repentant Europe preps policy U-turn amid Arab uprisings
According to the report, another tactic would be to air-drop weapons and supplies to Libyan rebels.
Kadhafi, in an interview aired Monday by France24 television, repeated his accusation that Al-Qaeda was fomenting the revolt against his regime and railed against France.
When asked about Paris's backing for the national council -- the embryonic provisional government formed by rebels in the second city of Benghazi -- Kadhafi said: "It makes one laugh, this interference in internal affairs.
"And what if we interfered in the affairs of Corsica or Sardinia?" he said, speaking in Arabic.
Britain was forced to admit its own, secret, attempt to begin negotiations with the rebels had ended ignominiously after opposition forces arrested a diplomat and a protection squad inserted clandestinely by helicopter.
In Benghazi, a rebel spokesman said the British team that landed nearby had not made prior arrangements, and was sent away. Scene: Hygiene a priority at Tunisia refugee camp
The opposition vehemently denied a Sunday report by Allibiya state television that Kadhafi's forces had retaken a string of strategic oil towns from the rebels, including Misrata and Ras Lanuf.
AFP reporters in Ras Lanuf, taken by rebels early on Saturday, confirmed it was still in opposition hands despite being hit by air strikes early Sunday.
Elsewhere, Yemen's opposition movement has vowed to intensify protests against the regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, after the embattled leader refused to resign by the end of the year.
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