Muammar Qaddafi must go in 12 days or less

“Rare Daytime NATO Airstrikes Hit Libyan Capital

Published June 07, 2011

Associated Press

TRIPOLI, Libya -- Low-flying NATO military craft hit Tripoli in eleven successive attacks on Tuesday in rare daytime strikes on the Libyan capital as pressure mounted on the regime of Muammar Qaddafi.

The strikes shook the city and appeared to land close to Qaddafi's sprawling compound, but government officials were not immediately available to confirm the targets. After some of the strikes, pro-Qaddafi loyalists inside the capital fired anti-aircraft weapons into the air.

NATO officials have warned for days that they were seeking to increase the scope and intensity of their two-month old campaign to oust Qaddafi after more than 40 years in power.

NATO is assisting a four-month old rebel insurgency that has seized swaths of eastern Libya and pockets in the regime's stronghold of the country's west.

The revolt against Qaddafi followed popular uprisings that overturned the longtime rulers of Tunisia and Egypt. A coalition of rebels seized control of much of eastern Libya and set up an administration based in the eastern city of Benghazi. As the conflict escalated, it grew beyond an insurrection by a small group and has now evolved into a civil war. The rebels, led by the National Transitional Council, are well in control of nearly a third of the inhabitable part of Libya the country.

Also on Tuesday, Tripoli dispatched Foreign Minister Abdul-Ati al-Obeidi to Beijing for a three-day visit, apparently seeking to restore some of the Libyan government's influence and defuse a setback delivered by China last week.

The visit came after Chinese officials announced on Friday they had reached out to the rebel forces challenging Qaddafi, a significant effort to boost Chinese engagement in the Libya conflict and possibly jostle for a mediator role.

Beijing had stayed on the sidelines for the first few months since the revolt against Qaddafi's government erupted in mid-February, pointedly avoiding joining international calls for Qaddafi to step down and saying that is for the Libyan people to decide. China also abstained in the U.N. Security Council vote authorizing the use of force against Libyan government loyalists and has repeatedly criticized the NATO bombing campaign in support of the rebels.

But last week, Beijing said the head of Libya's rebel council met with China's ambassador to Qatar in Doha, in what was the first known contact between the two sides. China's decision to engage the rebels was a diplomatic setback for Qaddafi.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters at a regular briefing Tuesday that talks with al-Obeidi would focus on the need for a political solution to the Libyan crisis.

He also reiterated China's appeals for an immediate cease-fire and called on all parties to "fully consider the mediation proposals put forward by the international community so as to defuse the tensions as soon as possible."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/...-capital/#ixzz1OaaF4uCy”