Gadhafi strikes oil areas; Arabs weigh peace plan

BREGA, LIBYA—Moammar Gadhafi’s forces struck at rebel-held oil export hubs in Libya’s east for a second day on Thursday as Arab states weighed a plan to end the turmoil that Washington said could make the country “a giant Somalia.”

A leader of the uprising against Gadhafi’s 41-year-old rule said he would reject any proposal for talks with Gadhafi to end the conflict in the world’s 12th largest oil exporting nation.

Witnesses said a warplane bombed the eastern oil terminal town of Brega, a day after troops loyal to Gadhafi launched a ground and air attack on the town that was repulsed by rebels who have spearheaded a popular revolt against his four-decade-old rule since mid-February.

The rebels, armed with rocket launchers, antiaircraft guns and tanks, called on Wednesday for UN-backed air strikes on foreign mercenaries it said were fighting for Gadhafi.

But perhaps mindful of Gadhafi’s warning that foreign intervention could cause “another Vietnam,” Western officials expressed caution about any sort of military involvement including the imposition of a no-fly zone.

A rebel officer said government air strikes targeted the airport of Brega and a rebel position in the nearby town of Ajdabiya, referring to two rebel-held locations.

Opposition soldiers also said troops loyal to Gadhafi had been pushed back to Ras Lanuf, home to another major oil terminal and 600 km east of Tripoli.

Chavez peace plan

As the struggle between Gadhafi loyalists and rebels who have taken swathes of Libya intensified, Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa said a peace plan for Libya from Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez was under consideration.

“We have been informed of President Chavez’s plan but it is still under consideration,” Moussa told Reuters on Thursday. “We consulted several leaders yesterday.”

Moussa said he had not agreed to the plan and did not know whether Gadhafi had accepted it.

The Al Jazeera network said the chair of the rebels’ National Libyan Council, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, rejected entirely the concept of talks with Gadhafi.

In a push east on Wednesday, government troops backed by air power, briefly captured Brega.

But opposition forces took back the town they have held for about a week, rebel officers said. They were ready to move west toward the capital Tripoli, they said, if Gadhafi refused to quit.

Another Vietnam?

Basking in the adulation of loyalists in Tripoli on Wednesday, Gadhafi launched into a tirade against the “armed gangsters” he said were behind the unrest, part of a conspiracy to colonize Libya and seize its oil.

“We will enter a bloody war and thousands and thousands of Libyans will die if the United States enters or NATO enters,” Gadhafi told Tripoli supporters at a gathering televised live.

“We are ready to hand out weapons to a million, or 2 million or 3 million, and another Vietnam will begin,” he added.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Washington that one of the biggest US concerns was “Libya descending into chaos and becoming another Somalia.”

The Libyan government has tried to persuade people in Tripoli that life continues as normal, but the crisis was affecting everyday life.

There were queues outside banks and residents said food prices had gone up, while the street value of the Libyan dinar had fallen dramatically against the dollar.

No-fly zone

Libya’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, one of the first Libyan diplomats to denounce Gadhafi and defect, said the United Nations may back a resolution for a no-fly zone if the newly constituted National Libyan Council requested it officially.

The US government is cautious about imposing a no-fly zone, stressing the diplomatic and military risks involved, but has moved warships into the Mediterranean.

Any sort of foreign military involvement in Arab countries is a sensitive topic for Western nations uncomfortably aware that Iraq suffered years of bloodletting and al-Qaida violence after a 2003 US-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein.

The Arab League said it was against direct outside military intervention, but could enforce a no-fly zone in cooperation with the African Union. Realistically though, only the United States could carry out such an operation.