BENGHAZI, Libya—Fighting raged around Libya’s rebel stronghold of Benghazi on Saturday as Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi gave a defiant response to world leaders planning military action against him.
A huge plume of smoke rose over Libya’s second largest city as hundreds of people fled eastward after a series of air strikes and sustained shelling.
Earlier, the Libyan government said it was observing a ceasefire it had announced on Friday, shortly after the United Nations voted to authorize the use of force against Gadhafi’s troops to spare civilians.
It said its armed forces were under attack west of Benghazi and had responded in self-defense.
“The gangs of al-Qaida attacked the units of the Libyan Armed Forces stationed to the west of Benghazi,” a statement carried by the official Jana news agency said, using Tripoli’s term for the insurgents.
It accused the rebels of using “a helicopter and a fighter jet to bomb the Libyan Armed Forces in blatant violation of the no-fly zone imposed by the UN Security Council.”
The rebels, who have been trying to overthrow the Libyan leader for more than a month, said his troops had continued to bombard cities, violating the ceasefire continuously since its declaration.
A warplane was seen coming down in a residential area of Benghazi with flames emerging from the rear fuselage, triggering celebratory gunfire from the rebels.
The pilot ejected from the aircraft, which was identified as a Russian-built MiG-23 fighter as used by the Libyan air force. However, a number of military units defected to the rebellion soon after the revolt broke out.
Forced back
Libyan rebels said they were being forced back by Gadhafi’s forces. Black plumes of smoke could be seen on the road to the west of the city, a witness said.
“We have no hope in the Western forces,” said Khalid Ahmed, a rebel fighter, as around him rebel forces pulled back from the advancing front line.
Elsewhere in the city, rebels reported skirmishes and strikes by Gadhafi forces.
“Fighter jets bombed the road to the airport and there’s been an air strike on the Abu Hadi district on the outskirts,” Mohammed Dwo, a hospital worker and a rebel supporter, said.
He was speaking at the aftermath of an apparent firefight between rebels and men they claimed were two mercenaries who had infiltrated the city and had been driving a car which they said contained a crate of hand grenades.
The two men, in civilian clothes, had been shot dead and rebels produced blood-soaked identity papers they said showed them to be of Nigerian nationality.
“We were sitting here and we received gunfire from this vehicle then we opened fire and after that it crashed,” rebel fighter Meri Dersi said.
‘You’ll regret it’
In messages to French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron, main sponsors of Friday’s UN resolution, Gadhafi said they would regret interfering in his country’s affairs, a spokesperson said in Tripoli.
“If you intervene in our country you will regret it,” a spokesperson in Tripoli quoted him as telling them, adding that Gadhafi had also sent messages to US President Barack Obama and UN chief Ban Ki-moon.
And he told Obama that the Libyan people were “prepared to die for me—men, women and children.”
Libya’s deputy foreign minister had denied late Friday any plans to attack the rebel bastion and said the government forces would not breach the ceasefire.
Khaled Kaaim also called for the immediate deployment of foreign observers, saying otherwise “the accusations and counteraccusations will not stop.”
In an interview with BBC radio on Saturday, Kaaim said any foreign intervention would prompt the people from Libya’s neighbors to rally to Gadhafi.
Defensive summit
France was to host later on Saturday what it said would be a “decisive” summit with the European Union, Arab League and African Union, as well as UN chief Ban Ki-moon, on taking military action in Libya.
Late Friday the French presidency said that France, Britain, the United States and Arab countries had told Gadhafi to “immediately” cease all attacks against his people or face the consequences.
A statement said “that a ceasefire must be put in place immediately, that is, that all attacks against civilians must come to an end.”
It added that “Gadhafi must end his troops’ advance on Benghazi and withdraw from Ajdabiya, Misrata and Zawiyah,” referring to rebel-held towns attacked or captured by government forces in the past few days.
Within hours of Obama saying the terms of a UN resolution meant to end fighting in Libya were non-negotiable, his UN envoy Susan Rice, asked by CNN whether Gadhafi was in violation of these terms, said: “Yes, he is.”
Obama made clear any military action would aim to change conditions across Libya—rather than just in the rebel-held east—by calling on Gadhafi’s forces to pull back from the western cities of Zawiyah and Misrata as well as from the east.
Not negotiable
“All attacks against civilians must stop,” Obama said, a day after the UN Security Council passed a resolution authorizing international military intervention.
“Gadhafi must stop his troops from advancing on Benghazi, pull them back from Ajdabiya, Misrata and Zawiyah, and establish water, electricity and gas supplies to all areas. Humanitarian assistance must be allowed to reach the people of Libya …
“Let me be clear, these terms are not negotiable … If Gadhafi does not comply … the resolution will be enforced through military action.”
“Left unchecked, we have every reason to believe that Gadhafi would commit atrocities against his people,” Obama said on Friday, reinforcing the international message. “Many thousands could die. A humanitarian crisis would ensue.” Reports from AFP and Reuters</strong.