Bombs on Obama’s rebel stronghold: “Gaddafi must leave”

TRIPOLI – New bombing on the center of Brega, the eastern Libyan city where the insurgents yesterday rejected an air and land attack by Gaddafi’s loyal troops. “I heard a plane, then the explosion and saw a crater,” said a witness, Mohammed Shibli from Brega, stating that the bomb fell near the engineering university which is about two kilometers from the oil terminal for exports. “There was an air attack about an hour and a half ago. I saw it with my own eyes,” said Awadh Mohammed, a volunteer with the rebels. While the clashes continue in the country, the vice is tightening against the rais: the blockade of the assets of the Gaddafi family decided by the EU together with the arms embargo and the International Criminal Court opened an investigation for war crimes in which the Libyan leader is investigated, together with the leaders of the regime. Meanwhile, the three American warships passed through the Suez Canal are now 50 miles from the Libyan coasts. The US president announced that the use of aeronautics will be authorized to allow the repatriation of Egyptian refugees.

Use of aircrafts for evacuations. The American war ships that crossed the Suez Canal yesterday towards the Mediterranean are now 50 miles from the Libyan coasts. This is the USS Kearsarge, which transports helicopters, of the USS Ponce with ammunition and landing craft on board and of the Andrid transport vessel which has armored vehicles on board. The White House has authorized the use of air force to evacuate Libyan refugees, as well as deciding on a series of humanitarian aid. US President Barack Obama said this at a press conference with Mexican President Felipe Calderon. Obama then returned to demand the immediate abandonment of power by the Libyan leader who “has lost all legitimacy and must leave”.

EU, funds freezing operational. Meanwhile, concrete measures are coming from Europe against the regime: from today the funds freeze of the six main members of the Gaddafi family and 20 close collaborators of the Libyan regime is operational. The EU regulation that provides for the freezing of all the funds and economic resources of these 26 people was published today in the Official Journal of the EU and entered into force immediately. It concerns all the assets “belonging, owned, held or controlled” by the persons indicated in the lists and also provides for the total embargo on the sale of weapons and the prohibition of providing equipment that can be used for internal repression such as vehicles equipped with water cannons, bulletproof vests , night visors, knives with a blade over 10 centimeters and sharp barbed wire.

TPI: Gaddafi investigated for crimes against humanity. On a diplomatic level, the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security, Catherine Ashton, convened an extraordinary informal meeting of the 27 foreign ministers on 10 March in Brussels. The International Criminal Court also moves, which opened an investigation into “crimes against humanity committed in Libya since last February 15”, in which Gaddafi is being investigated, along with the leaders of the Libyan regime: he announced it in The Hague the attorney general of the court, Luis Moreno Ocampo.

Born: ready for any eventuality. The rais promised yesterday that there will be thousands of deaths in the event of a military intervention by Westerners in Libya. For now, NATO does not foresee military intervention in Libya, but is preparing for any eventuality, said the general secretary of the alliance, Anders Fogh Rasmussen today.

(March 03, 2011)