By Richard Hall
Saturday, 23 April 2011
A senior Libyan government official said the Libyan army will pull out of the besieged, rebel-held city of Misrata and be replaced by armed tribesmen.
Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim told journalists late yesterday that "we will leave it for the tribes around Misrata and the Misrata people to deal with the situation in Misrata".
Mr Khaim cited NATO airstrikes as the reason for the army withdrawing from the city. "The tactic of the army is to have a surgical solution but with the airstrikes it doesn't work."
The announcement may come as a surprise to US military officials, who earlier expressed fears of a "stalemate" in the conflict, and confessed that allied air-strikes have so far failed to deal a decisive blow to Muammar Gaddafi. Admiral Mike Mullen told a news conference that although the bombardment has stemmed the advance of government troops, it has not allowed rebel fighters to launch significant counter-attacks.
Conflict in Misrata, the only rebel stronghold in the west of Libya, is largely street fighting. The US deployed two unmanned aircraft piloted from the US on Thursday, but poor weather forced both to turn back.
Source: The Independent.
Link: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/gaddafi-regime-to-use-tribes-in-misrata-battle-2273754.html.
An Open Letter to Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan
9 years ago
No any government will stay in the power for a long time without their people interference and approval so Libyan government will not stay long more its days are countable the people of Libya will won the war with the help of NATO forces its confirmed.
ReplyDeleteThe only way the Libyan people would win the revolution against Gaddafi is for them to depend on Allah and ONLY on Allah. NATO is "helping" them, but are the rebels winning? They don't seem to be winning at this point and no one knows what the future holds. We'll all see if the Libyan Revolution is a failure or a success.
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