Arab leaders to discuss Libya

Arab foreign ministers were meeting in Egypt today to discuss a no-fly zone over Libya as Col Gaddafi’s regime showed growing confidence after retaking a strategic town near Tripoli following days of relentless shelling against protesters-turned-rebels.

Ahmed bin Helli, the Arab League’s under-secretary general, said a no-fly zone proposition was on the agenda for today’s emergency meeting. Member states, however, were divided over how to deal with the Libyan crisis, saying it would be a tough debate.

Gaddafi’s regime captured the strategic town of Zawiya and a key oil town in the east on Friday as it fought to dislodge rebels who took refuge among towering storage containers of crude oil and gas in nearby facilities.

Zawiya’s main square, which had been a key centre of resistance to the west of the capital, bore the scars of battle and the streets were lined with tanks as loyalists waving green flags rallied amid a heavy presence of uniformed pro-Gaddafi troops and snipers. There was talk of rebel bodies having been bulldozed away, and the dome and minaret of the nearby mosque were demolished.

With Gaddafi’s men also on the march against rebels in the east, Western nations appeared in disarray over how to stop the bloodshed.

President Barack Obama said a no-fly zone over Libya to protect the civilian population from the Gaddafi regime’s fighter jets remains a possibility as “we are slowly tightening the noose” around Gaddafi, but he stopped short of moving toward military action.

The European Union, meanwhile, said a no-fly zone would need diplomatic backing from international organisations like the Arab League, which was to discuss situation in Libya today in Cairo.

The capture of Zawiya, a coastal city of about 200,000 people that is located near an oil port and refineries, seals off a corridor around the capital and solidifies the government’s control over the western third of the country to the border with Tunisia. The government still faced a rebel challenge in Misrata, Libya’s third-largest city, 125 miles south-east of Tripoli.

The government had claimed victory in Zawiya, 30 miles west of Tripoli, on Wednesday, but the rebels who are seeking to oust Gaddafi said fighting was continuing.

Grim evidence of battle was everywhere. A makeshift clinic that had been set up inside the mosque to treat the injured was destroyed and the floor was covered with rubble, shoes and glass while the roof was punctured with a large hole where the dome had been.

The facades of buildings, including banks and hotels overlooking Martyrs’ Square, were devastated, the streets were strewn with shattered glass and several palm trees had been burned or uprooted.

A 43-year-old government employee said the shelling of the city started on Friday and was non-stop until Wednesday, the day the government claimed victory.

“Many people were killed on Friday. The youth were marching in the square,” he said. “I don’t know whom to blame – the leader, the son of the leader, the government or the rebels. It was peaceful. I don’t know why this happened. I never imagined that I would see Zawiya, my hometown, like this.”

He said at least 24 of the protesters had been buried in the square but the pro-Gaddafi forces had used bulldozers to remove their bodies.

Libya’s deputy foreign minister Khaled Qaid said the death toll was 14, including rebels and army soldiers.

Anti-Gaddafi graffiti that had covered walls during a previous visit by reporters also had been painted over. Green flags and pictures of Gaddafi were wrapped around some buildings.

Zawiya’s fall to the opposition about a week into the uprising that began February 15 illustrated the initial, blazing progress of the movement that started with protests in the east and escalated into an armed rebellion. But Gaddafi has seized the momentum, battering opponents with airstrikes and artillery fire.