Qaddafi Forces Pull Back as Rebels Retake Ajdabiya
Anja Niedringhaus/Associated Press
Rebels celebrated after taking the city of Ajdabiya, south of Benghazi, eastern Libya, on Saturday. More Photos »
By KAREEM FAHIM and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: March 26, 2011
AJDABIYA, Libya — Rebels seized Ajdabiya on Saturday, government and rebel forces said, succeeding in an effort to retake this key town in the east following another night of allied air strikes against forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.
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Libya’s deputy foreign minister, Khaled Kaim, acknowledged in a news conference that the Qaddafi government forces had “pulled back” from Ajdabiya and reiterated accusations that the international air strikes were killing civilians as they provided air cover for the advancing rebel forces.
In Ajdabiya, hundreds of cars were seen streaming toward the strategic town, which had been in the control by government forces for almost two weeks. Three large tank transport carriers also headed toward the city. There were reports of pockets of fighting, and heavy damage could be seen in the eastern part of the city as the rebels advanced. “People are celebrating,” said Najib al-Mukasabi, who was driving out of Ajdabiya north toward Benghazi. “The west and east gates are liberated. They’re back in Brega,” he said, referring to the government troops.
The rebel success in Ajdabiya came a week after coalition airstrikes began to enforce a U.N.-mandated no-fly zone over Libya, and followed preparations by NATO to assume leadership from the United States of the military campaign against Colonel Qaddafi’s forces. Allied officials on Friday scrambled to work out the precise command arrangements.
The agreement came as President Obama, facing criticism from his political opponents, began trying to seize control of his message about the Libyan conflict. In his weekly address, Mr. Obama said on Saturday that the American mission was “clear and focused” and that while the American role would be limited, “We’re succeeding in our mission.”
“Along with our allies and partners, we’re enforcing the mandate of the United Nations Security Council,” he said, noting that Qatar and the United Arab Emirates had each committed aircraft. “And as agreed this week, responsibility for this operation is being transferred from the United States to our NATO allies and partners.
“As I pledged at the outset, the role of American forces has been limited,” he added. “We are not putting any ground forces into Libya. Our military has provided unique capabilities at the beginning, but this is now a broad, international effort. Our allies and partners are enforcing the no fly zone over Libya and the arms embargo at sea.”
On Friday, Mr. Obama defended his handling of the Libya crisis in a White House meeting and conference call with more than 20 Democrat and Republican Congressional leaders.
The White House also announced that he would give a speech to the nation on Libya on Monday night. And his two top foreign policy advisers — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates — prepared to appear on the Sunday talk shows to explain the administration’s Libya policy.
Mr. Obama had come under criticism from Republicans in Congress for failing to provide a coherent explanation of the weeklong operation. Administration officials portray it as an already successful effort to prevent the Libyan leader from attacking his own people. But the military campaign has been dogged by friction over its ultimate mission, and which of the disparate countries involved should command the operation.
As Mr. Obama said in his address, the allied effort had won rare military commitments in the Arab world on Friday when two Qatari fighter jets flew on patrol with the Western allies and the United Arab Emirates said that it would send warplanes to join them.
NATO had agreed late Thursday that it would take over not only command and control of the no-fly zone, but also the much riskier campaign to protect civilians through aggressive coalition airstrikes on Colonel Qaddafi’s troops on the ground, the officials said. Details of the second part of the operation will be worked out in a formal military planning document in time for a meeting of coalition foreign ministers in London on Tuesday, the officials said.
“It’s been handed over to military planners,” Mark Toner, a State Department spokesman, said on Friday.
As the air campaign entered its seventh day, allied warplanes and Tomahawk cruise missiles pounded Libyan air defenses, communications posts and troops. At the Pentagon, Vice Adm. William E. Gortney, the director of the joint staff, said that the airstrikes were making it harder for Colonel Qaddafi to supply and communicate with his troops, but that they had not yet seriously weakened the Libyan military forces or pushed them to heed the Americans’ call to defy their leader.
In an apparent bid to bolster the loyalty of Colonel Qaddafi’s armed forces, Libyan state television said Friday without details that the military would promote all its officers, implying a raise in pay. A government spokesman, Musa Ibrahim, said that similar raises were carried out during earlier crises, like Colonel Qaddafi’s failed war with Chad in the late 1980s.
Multimedia
Related
NATO Agrees to Take Command of No-Fly Zone in Libya (March 25, 2011)
The Lede Blog: Latest Updates(March 25, 2011)
Times Topic: Libya — Protests and Revolt (2011)
Related in Opinion
Kristof: Hugs From Libyans(March 24, 2011)
Editorial: Discord Among Allies(March 24, 2011)
ROOM FOR DEBATE
What Is the U.S. Plan for Libya?
If Obama's broader aim is to force Qaddafi to withdraw his forces, what's the next step?
The London meeting of coalition foreign ministers and subsequent meetings will deal with the larger political campaign, including sanctions and other measures intended to put more pressure on Colonel Qaddafi to quit. It will also have representation from the United Nations, the Arab League and the African Union. But that meeting of what the British are calling “the contact group” will not be running the military side of the operation, the officials said.
Left unresolved, of course, is how long the campaign will last, because Colonel Qaddafi shows no sign of obeying the United Nations Security Council resolution demanding a cease-fire and refuses to pull his troops back to barracks. At the same time, the ragtag opposition may not be strong enough, even with the coalition’s air power, to force the colonel from his redoubt in Tripoli.
NATO officials said Friday they thought the no-fly zone would last about three months, but Pentagon officials privately expressed fears that it could last much longer.
A sticking point in the negotiations to broadening NATO’s control was what military officials call the “no-drive zone,” the bombing of Colonel Qaddafi’s ground forces, tanks and artillery outside Libyan cities. France wanted to have a clearer leadership role in the campaign, while Turkey was concerned about the operation’s evolving into one involving ground troops. Many countries, like Italy and Norway, however, said they would participate only if NATO ran the entire military operation.
France was placated by the London coalition, while Turkey’s fears were allayed by putting the military campaign under the full control of NATO, which operates only by the unanimous consent of its member nations.
The United States, which contributes most of NATO’s military capability and traditionally dominates behind the scenes, is in this case eager to hand off responsibility and will have more limited roles, officials said. Reinforcing that point, Canada said Friday that one of its officers, Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard, would be taking command of NATO no-fly operations in Libya.
The United Arab Emirates agreed on Friday to commit 12 aircraft — six F-16 and six Mirage warplanes — to join patrols enforcing the no-fly zone, the official Emirates News Agency reported. The United Arab Emirates and Qatar are the only members of the 22-nation Arab League that have committed planes to an active role in enforcing the no-fly zone. On Friday, British and French officials said their planes had conducted assaults on loyalist forces around the beleaguered eastern city of Ajdabiya, which controls the approaches to the de facto rebel capital of Benghazi. Pro-Qaddafi units have been holding their easternmost line against rebels in Ajdabiya, thwarting any rebel advance to the west toward Tripoli, but rebel forces say they have been trying to negotiate the withdrawal or surrender of one loyalist unit in the strategic crossroads town.
Gene Cretz, the American ambassador to Libya, said on Friday that the United States was in regular touch with leaders of the Libyan opposition, and stood ready to offer them political training and legal advice as they try to form a provisional administration. But Mr. Cretz said the United States had not yet decided whether to recognize the rebels as the legitimate government of Libya, saying that raised legal questions.
He also said no decision had been reached on whether to provide weapons to the rebels. “The full gamut of potential assistance that we might offer, both on the non-lethal and the lethal side, is a subject of discussion within the U.S. government,” he said.
Kareem Fahim reported from Ajdabiya, Libya, and David D. Kirkpatrick from Tripoli, Libya. Steven Erlanger contributed reporting from Brussels, and Eric Schmitt and Mark Landler from Washington.
(The newyork times)
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