Obama 'Appalled' by Libya Violence
The Washington Post reports:
Forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi escalated their fiercest counterattack yet against the opposition on Saturday, laying violent siege to a rebel enclave by shelling residential neighborhoods and rolling into the city with tanks.
A government campaign unleashed on Friday was continuing unabated, with a ruthless assault on the strategic western port city of Zawiyah. Rebels, who were still managing to hold the city, described a "massacre" with dozens dead and hundreds wounded.
The lethal force of the government offensive raised the stakes for Washington and its Western allies. They have threatened military intervention if the Gaddafi government crosses red lines including the systematic endangerment of defenseless civilians or if the battle for Libya evolves into a long-term, bloody stalemate.
Yet if anything, the fresh wave of attacks underscored Gaddafi's ability to press defiantly ahead with a brutal campaign to reclaim land lost to the rebels and squelch dissent within bastions of government control. The government appeared to be trying to secure a buffer zone around Tripoli and target areas vital to the country's oil industry, taking aim at cities and ports that have given the rebels a foothold close to the capital.
The White House expressed renewed alarm, saying that President Obama is "appalled by the use of force against unarmed, peaceful civilians." Obama is being briefed on Libya three times a day, and "we're not taking any options off the table," said Jay Carney, the White House press secretary.
With thousands of refugees stuck on the Tunisian border with Libya, two U.S. Air Force C-130 cargo planes flew in humanitarian supplies for them Friday and planned to return Saturday to pick up Egyptian refugees and fly them home.
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