Insurgents pinned down in their bid to oust Libyan strongman Muammar Qaddafi yesterday hailed a US decision to deploy armed drones over Libya, as US Senator John McCain arrived for talks with the rebel leadership.
“We are so pleased,” media liaison official for the rebels’ Transitional National Council (TNC), Mustafa Gheriani said in Benghazi.
“We hope that this can bring some relief to the people in Misrata,” he added, referring to the rebel-held city in western Libya which has been pounded by Qaddafi’s forces for more than six weeks, leaving hundreds dead.
US President Barack Obama authorized the deployment of missile-carrying drone warplanes over Libya “because of the humanitarian situation,” US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said on Thursday.
Libyan rebels, who on Thursday overran a post on the Tunisian border to mark their first advance in weeks, have complained that civilians are being killed in places like Misrata.
Unmanned drones will give NATO commanders precision -capabilities to strike targets that are “nestling up against crowded areas,” said US General James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Their first deployment was slated for Thursday but it was called off because of bad weather.
Libyan deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaim slammed the deployment of drones.
“They will kill more civilians,” he told BBC radio.
“This is very sad ... they are claiming they are supporting democracy, [but] supporting democracy, I think, is helping people to sit together and talk together and have a serious dialogue for the future. It’s for the Libyans to decide their future not by air strikes and sending money to the rebels,” he said.
McCain, who has lobbied for greater US involvement in a UN-mandated NATO air campaign aimed at preventing Qaddafi’s forces attacking civilians, arrived in Benghazi early yesterday.
He was mobbed when he paid a visit to the rebels’ headquarters in the center of the city by a crowd of about 50 people, who chanted, “Libya free, Qaddafi go away — thank you America, thank you Obama.”
McCain, the highest-ranking US politician to visit Libya’s rebel-held east since a popular uprising against Qaddafi’s rule began in mid-February, was expected to hold talks with TNC leaders later in day.
The rebels have been pinned back by government troops for more than three weeks in eastern Libya and suffered heavy losses in Misrata.
Rebel leaders in the city have pleaded for foreign help, saying the air strikes are not enough to dislodge Qaddafi troops hiding in civilian areas and fighting street by street.
France, Italy and Britain have said they would send military personnel to eastern Libya, but only to advise the rebels on technical, logistical and organizational matters and not to engage in combat.
Mourners in Benghazi meanwhile paid homage overnight to Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros, two award-winning war photographers killed in Misrata on Wednesday. The two were killed by a mortar strike as they were covering vicious combat in Misrata’s shattered central district, along the main Tripoli Street.
The capture of Wazin border post Thursday was cheered by several hundred rebels who raised the flag of the Libyan monarchy after between 150 and 200 pro-Qaddafi soldiers abandoned their weapons and fled into Tunisia.
The post is 200km south of the main Tunisian-Libyan crossing at Ras Jdir.
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