Cameron, Sarkozy on Libya Visit, Fight in Gaddafi Towns Resumes

Local Editor

British and French Presidents arrived on Thursday in Libya to congratulate the new leaders whose forces have been keeping up the fight against Muammar Gaddafi loyalists in their remaining towns. It’s the first visit by western Leader to Libya since Gaddafi was deposed last month August in the face of a massive rebel assault backed by NATO air strikes that were called for and largely carried out by France and Britain. David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy will meet National Transitional Council (NTC) leaders in Tripoli, before flying to Benghazi, where they are expected to speak in the former rebel stronghold's Liberty Square. For his part, NTC chief Mustafa Abdul Jalil has pledged that Tripoli had now been sufficiently secured and ready for the leaders’ visit. In an interview with BBC ahead of Cameron and Sarkozy arrival, Abdul Jalil said: "We say to the leaders coming tomorrow (Thursday) that they will be safe," he said. Speaking to the BBC at the airport, UK PM, Cameron, said he was delighted to be in Tripoli, adding that he "hoped to work for a better and free and democratic Libya". He and Sarkozy then boarded a French helicopter to visit a hospital in the capital. The two leaders were received by slogans like: "Merci Sarkozy!" and "Thank you Britain!" WEAPONS APPEAL Abdul Jalil appealed in the BBC interview for new weapons deliveries to help capture Gaddafi last remaining bastions and complete his country's liberation. He said that many of Gaddafi's remaining forces had now massed in the far south and that the NTC needed more arms to defeat them. "There will be fierce battles in Sabha with equipment that we do not yet have, and we ask for more equipment to retake these places," he said. A huge convoy of pickups mounted with heavy weapons massed on the coast west of Sirte early on Wednesday in readiness for what commanders said would be a pincer movement against the city, an AFP correspondent reported. MORE OFFENSIVES Half of the column massed at Tawurgha, south of Libya's third-largest city Misrata, would advance straight along the coast road, commanders said. The other half would strike south into the desert towards the town of Waddan in the Al-Jufra oasis in a bid to cut Sirte off from Gaddafi’s other principal bastion, the south's largest city Sabha, they added. A commander of one of the NTC brigades massing in Tawurgha said there were many hundreds of heavily armed vehicles involved in the looming offensive. "This convoy, I can't give you the exact number, but it is about 500 vehicles or more," Fawzy Sawawy, a commander of the Mountains Brigade told AFP. "We are going to surround and free Sirte," he said. "We want to clear the road from Ras Jadid (on the Tunisian border in the far west) to Sallum (on the Egyptian border in far east)." GADDAFI “IN PERFECT HEALTH” On the other hand, Gaddafi spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said Gaddafi was in "perfect health" and that his morale was up but did not indicate the fugitive strongman's whereabouts. The spokesman accused Libya's new rulers of "starving" loyalist areas in their bid to subjugate them. "Daily life in Sirte and Bani Walid (a desert town to its southwest) is very difficult," Ibrahim, who is also a cousin of the toppled leader, told Syria-based Al-Rai television. "They are starving entire regions to force the people to give themselves up," he added without saying where he was. "They have cut off electricity and water as well as supply routes and are preventing food and medicines from coming in, thereby violating all international norms."

Source: Agencies

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