Qaddafi Offers Partial Withdrawal

Wall Street Journal reports:

Under growing military pressure, Col. Moammar Gadhafi's government offered to withdraw the Libyan army from cities it has occupied to battle a three-month-old uprising if the North Atlantic Treaty Organization stops bombing the country and rebel forces agree to disarm.

Libyan spokesman Moussa Ibrahim, who outlined the offer late Thursday, said it was a response to a Russian proposal. It was the closest the government has come to addressing NATO's demands for halting a crackdown in which thousands are believed to have died.

The offer came after more than two months of intense bombing by NATO forces, including strikes on Col. Gadhafi's headquarters and command centers. On Thursday Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the colonel's wife, Safia, and their daughter, Aisha, had fled the country into neighboring Tunisia, apparently confirming a report that Tunisian and Libyan authorities have denied.

"The pressure on the Gadhafi regime has increased," Ms. Clinton said in an interview with CBS's Katie Couric. "There is an enormous amount of increased messaging going to Gadhafi, not just because of the military strikes, but from those who he thought were in his camp or at least wouldn't try to push him to leave."

Mr. Ibraham insisted Thursday that Col. Gadhafi's wife and daughter were in Tripoli and had not left Libya since the fighting erupted in mid-February. He said he had spoken to the colonel's wife earlier in the evening.

As he spoke to reporters, a NATO airstrike hit what appeared to be a warship docked in the port of Tripoli, sending up flames and plumes of black smoke.