AP/AFPA Libyan aid convoy, which consists of 18 trucks and an ambulance carrying food and medicine, heads to the eastern city of Benghazi, amid a deepening humanitarian crisis. Source: AP
MUAMMAR Gaddafi's forces battled poorly armed rebels for control of towns near Tripoli, as the refugee crisis worsened and the West wrestled with a military response to the fraught situation.
The crisis has triggered an exodus of more than 140,000 refugees to Tunisia and Egypt, a UN official said, as aid workers warned the situation at the Tunisian border had reached crisis point.
Officials say the situation has been made even more volatile by humanitarian aid workers being blocked from reaching western Libya, patients reportedly being executed in hospitals, or shot by gunmen hiding in ambulances.
Gaddafi's son, Seif al-Islam, warned Western forces not to take military action against Libya and said the country is prepared to defend itself against foreign intervention.
"If they attack us, we are ready," he told Sky News, adding that the Gaddafis were ready to implement reforms.
Facing an unprecedented challenge to his 41-year rule, Gaddafi's regime has launched the bloodiest crackdown in a wave of uprising against authoritarian rulers in the Middle East.
Gaddafi has already lost control of the eastern half of the country but still holds Tripoli and other nearby cities.
An exact death toll has been difficult to obtain in the chaos, but a medical committee in the eastern city of Benghazi, where the uprising began on February 15, said at least 228 people had been killed, including 30 unidentified bodies, and 1932 wounded.
On Tuesday, Gaddafi's regime sought to show that it was the country's only legitimate authority and that it continued to feel compassion for areas in the east that fell under the control of its opponents.
A total of 18 trucks loaded with rice, flour, sugar and eggs left Tripoli for Benghazi, the country's second-largest city 1000km east of the capital.
Also in the convoy were two refrigerated cars carrying medical supplies, which are scarce in opposition-controlled areas.
The increasingly violent clashes near the capital threatened to transform the 15-day popular rebellion in Libya into a drawn-out civil war.
Amid the intensified fighting today, the international community stepped up moves to isolate the longtime Libyan leader.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said he ordered two ships into the Mediterranean, including the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge, and he is sending 400 Marines to the vessel to replace some troops that left recently for Afghanistan.
Military leaders weighing a no-fly zone over Libya said it would be a complex task that would require taking out Gaddafi's air defences, and Russia's top diplomat dismissed the idea as "superfluous" and said world powers should focus on sanctions.
My note:
Sanctions?! It is true that Americans do not wish to see their troops waged in yet another war half way around the world, in another Arab country, it should be known that "sanctions" do not work in real life as good as it looks on paper. Take a look at Iran - with all its sanctions, they appear to be free to take their battleships through the Suez, (photo on left) dock at Syria for a little "training" and act as though they are ready to take over the Middle East... are they?! Not a peep from any nation, other than to hear our own State Department declare that there really is "no problem" with Iran floating around the Red Sea, close to Israel, the country Iran wishes to "wipe off the map"! Sanctions?! Has that stopped Iran's inability to seek uranium, or has it prevented Iran from continuing its ongoing efforts to obtain a nuclear weapon? I disagree with Russia's "top diplomat" ... dismissing options to prevent another madman from murdering his own people is foolish.
Take a good look at this map and then tell Israel there is nothing to worry about, having Iran's ships docked at a port in Syria!
