Hundreds of armed anti-government forces backed by military defectors who control the city closest to the capital Tripoli prepared Sunday to repel an expected offensive by forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi surrounding Zawiya.
Two prominent U.S. Senators said Washington should
recognize and arm a provisional government in rebel-held areas of eastern Libya
and impose a no-fly zone over the area — enforced by U.S. warplanes — to stop
attacks by the regime. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton echoed
President Barack Obama's demand for Gadhafi to relinquish power.
"We want him to leave," she told reporters traveling
with her Sunday to a U.N. meeting on Libya planned for Monday. "We want
him to end his regime and call off the mercenaries and forces loyal to him. How
he manages that is up to him."
Gadhafi's son, Seif al-Islam, claimed again that the
country was calm and denied the regime used force or airstrikes against its own
people. But human rights groups and European officials have put the death toll
since unrest began in Libya nearly two weeks ago at hundreds, or perhaps
thousands, though it has been virtually impossible to verify the numbers.
There were no reports of violence or clashes on Sunday.
Gadhafi has launched by far the bloodiest crackdown in a
wave of anti-regime uprisings sweeping the Arab world. The United States,
Britain and the U.N. Security Council all imposed sanctions on Libya over the
weekend. And President Barack Obama said it is time for Gadhafi to go.
The regime, eager to show foreign reporters that the
country is calm and under their control, took visiting journalists to Zawiya,
30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Tripoli on Sunday. However, the tour confirmed
the anti-government rebels are in control of the center of the city of 200,000.
They have army tanks and anti-aircraft guns mounted on pickup trucks deployed.
On the outskirts of the city, they are surrounded by
pro-Gadhafi forces, also backed by tanks and anti-aircraft guns.
There were at least six checkpoints controlled by troops
loyal to Gadhafi on the road from Tripoli to Zawiya. Each checkpoint was
reinforced by at least one tank, and the troops concealed their faces with
scarves.
"To us, Gadhafi is the Dracula of Libya," said
Wael al-Oraibi, an army officer at Zawiya who joined the rebels. He said his
decision to defect was prompted in large part by the Libyan leader's use of mercenaries
from sub-Saharan Africa against the people of Zawiya.
A key city close to an oil port and refineries, Zawiya is
the nearest population center to Tripoli to fall into the opposition hands.
Police stations and government offices inside the city have been torched and
anti-Gadhafi graffiti was everywhere. Many buildings are pockmarked by bullets.
The mood in the city was generally upbeat, but the
anticipation of a renewed attempt to retake the city was causing some anxiety
among the rebels.
Meanwhile, cities in eastern Libya under the control of
rebels have appointed a former minister to lead a provisional government,
officials in Benghazi, Libya's second largest city in the east, said Sunday.
But a spokesman for the new government, Abdel-Hafidh Ghoga, denied that former
justice minister Mustafa Abdel-Jalil was named its leader.
U.S. Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman, speaking on CNN's
"State of the Union" Sunday, said Washington should arm the
provisional government in rebel-held areas of eastern Libya "to fight on
behalf of the people of Libya against a really cruel dictator." He also
proposed imposing a no-fly zone over the east to stop forces loyal to Gadhafi
from attacking.
Speaking on the same program, Republican Senator John
McCain suggested that U.S. warplanes are used to enforce the no-fly zone and
that Washington recognizes the government in eastern Libya.
Gadhafi's son Seif al-Islam denied in a TV interview that
his father's regime used force or airstrikes against its own people.
"Show me a single attack. Show me a single
bomb," he told ABC's "This Week," according to a transcript.
"The Libyan air force destroyed just the ammunition sites. That's
it."
Seif al-Islam is the most visible of Gadhafi's children
and has since the anti-government protests broke out nearly two weeks ago been
acting as a spokesman for the regime.
"The whole south is calm. The west is calm. The
middle is calm. Even part of the east," he said.
Asked about Obama's call for his father to step down, he
said: "It's not an American business, that's No. 1. Second, do they think
this is a solution? Of course not."
As for the U.S. freeze of Libyan assets, he said:
"First of all, we don't have money outside. We are a very modest family
and everybody knows that."
"Gadhafi Out," chanted hundreds in Zawiya's
city center on Sunday. The charred skeletons of many cars littered the city and
most streets were blocked by palm tree trunks or metal barricades. "Free,
Free Libya," chanted members of the anti-government forces at the city
center.
"Down with Gadhafi, the mass murderer," read
graffiti scrawled in the city. An effigy of Gadhafi hung from a light pole in
the city's main square. On its chest the words "Execute Gadhafi" were
emblazoned.
The square has now become the burial place of six of 11
rebels killed by pro-Gadhafi forces Thursday when they attacked the area to try
and dislodge them. Residents reported several skirmishes between the two sides
since Thursday.
"We are all wanted," said one rebel at the
square who did not want to give his name for fear of reprisals. "Zawiya in
our hands is a direct threat to Tripoli."
Rebels from the town and army forces who defected from
the regime to join them largely consolidated control of the town on Feb. 24,
after an army unit that remained loyal to Gadhafi opened fire on a mosque where
residents — some armed with hunting rifles for protection — had been holding a
sit-in.
About 20 miles (30 Kilometers) west of Zawiya, some 3,000
pro-Gadhafi demonstrators gathered on the coastal highway, chanting slogans in
support of the Libyan leader.
Before Zawiya fell to rebel forces, Gadhafi scolded the
city residents on Thursday.
"Shame on you, people of Zawiya. Control your
children," he said. "They are loyal to bin Laden," he said of
those involved in the uprising. "What do you have to do with bin Laden,
people of Zawiya? They are exploiting young people ... I insist it is bin
Laden."
On Feb. 24, local forces repelled an attempt by
militiamen and pro-Gadhafi troops to take back the town.
Later, Gadhafi's son, Seif al-Islam, acknowledged to
foreign journalists in Tripoli that there were "two minor problems"
in Misrata and Zawiya. There, he said, "we are dealing with terrorist
people," but he hoped to reach a peaceful settlement with them.
Gadhafi loyalists remain in control of nearby Tripoli,
which was reported to be quiet Sunday, with most stores closed and long lines
outside the few banks open for business.
City residents thronged the banks after state TV and SMS
messages announced in the past few days that each family would receive 500
Libyan dinars (about $400), plus the equivalent of about $100 credit for phone
service. State TV said families also will be entitled to 60,000 Libyan dinars
(about $49,000) in interest-free loans to buy apartments.
But one resident said Tripoli's calm may be deceptive.
"The situation is being constructed to look natural,
but it is not," said a 40-year-old Tripoli businessman who did not want to
be named for fear of reprisals. "People are scared and they are waiting
for the fall of the regime. People are scared to go out or to gather because
some areas have been taken over by armed groups loyal to the regime."
Another Tripoli resident, a 21-year-old Libyan-American
who only wanted to be identified by her first name, Rahma, said the city was
deserted on Sunday. "No one is driving around, no one is out in the
streets."
Her aunt, she said, went to a funeral Sunday and came
back to tell the rest of the family that there were checkpoints run by
pro-regime forces across the city.
A doctor in Libya's third-largest city Misrata, 125 miles
(200 kilometers) east of Tripoli, said residents retrieved two more bodies of
those killed during fighting with pro-Gadhafi forces near the city's air base
on Friday.
The two bodies raise to 27 the death toll from the
fighting. About 30 residents who took part in the battle remain unaccounted
for, said the doctor who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared
reprisals.
**Associated Press reporters Ben Hubbard and Bassem Mroue
in Cairo and Bradley Klapper in Geneva contributed to this report.