Qaddafi to Rebels: 'Surrender or Run'
The AP reports:
Moammar Gadhafi's forces overwhelmed rebels in a strategic eastern city, hammering them with airstrikes, missiles, tanks and artillery Tuesday in an assault that sent residents fleeing and threatened to open the way for an all-out government offensive on the opposition's main stronghold in the east, Benghazi.
In desperation, rebels sent up two antiquated warplanes that struck a government ship bombarding Ajdabiya from the Mediterranean. But as tanks rolled into the city from two directions and rockets relentlessly pounded houses and shops, the ragtag opposition fighters' defenses appeared to break down. Some lashed out at the West for failing to come to their aid with a no-fly zone.
"This is a mad man, a butcher," one rebel fighter said of Gadhafi, speaking to The Associated Press by telephone as explosions were heard in the background. "It's indiscriminate fire."
"The world is sleeping," he said. "They (the West) drunk of Gadhafi's oil and now they won't stand against him. They didn't give us a no-fly zone."
Residents of the city of 140,000 streamed out, fleeing toward Benghazi, 140 miles (200 kilometers) to the northeast. But warplanes and artillery were striking roads in and out of Ajdabiya, several witnesses and fighters said. Some reported private cars had been hit, but the reports could not be independently confirmed. They spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation from Gadhafi' regime.
The collapse of Ajdabiya, 480 miles (800 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli, would open the gateway for Gadhafi's forces to the long stretch of eastern Libya that has been in the control of the opposition since early on in the month-long uprising. Only 10 days ago, the rebellion had appeared capable of sweeping Gadhafi out after 41 years in power: It had a seemingly unshakable hold on the eastern half of the country and control of several cities in the west close to the capital and was poised to send fighters on a march on Tripoli.
But Gadhafi's regime has reversed the tide by relying on a military that — while apparently not much larger than rebel forces — is far better armed and organized, able to unleash fearsome bombardments from sea, air and land. With the fall of Ajdabiya, the regime forces would be able to bring that power to bear on Benghazi, Libya's second largest city and the de facto capital of the opposition.
Gadhafi warned rebels: "There are only two possibilities: Surrender or run away."
He said he was not like the Tunisian or Egyptian leaders, who fell after anti-government protests. "I'm very different from them," he said in an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Giornale. "People are on my side and give me strength."
Libyan state television aired calls for the opposition to stop fighting, apparently hoping to sway populations in the east away from support of the rebels. "Those who are asking your to put down your arms want peace for you, so please help them and stop shedding blood," the broadcaster said. "Libya is for everyone and by everyone. So let God's word be the highest and the word of evil be the lowest."
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