The Daily Blog

Tim Hetherington, Oscar-Nominated Journalist, Killed In Libya.

A highly acclaimed journalist and filmmaker has been killed in Libya, it was reported Wednesday.

Tim Hetherington, an Oscar-nominated filmmaker and photographer, was killed in the city of Misrata while covering fighting between Muammar Gaddafi’s forces and Libyan rebels. Agence France Press reported that Hetherington and three colleagues were hit by mortar fire. Andre Liohn, a fellow photographer in Libya, wrote on Facebook on Wednesday that Hetherington died “when covering the front line.”

Liohn’s Facebook post, which has since been taken down, prompted an outpouring of concerned and grief-stricken replies from the journalists’ colleagues and friends, and briefly became a sort of rolling news bulletin, as Liohn updated the information he was receiving.

One of the three photographers, Chris Hondros, was initially reported to have died. Liohn wrote on his wall soon after initially reporting Hetherington’s death, “Chris Hondros died now.” Liohn later told the New York Times that Hondros is in a coma, having suffered a serious brain injury.

Two other photographers, Guy Martin and Michael Brown, were also injured by the mortar fire. Brown is reportedly not badly hurt, but Martin’s wounds are said to be severe.

Hetherington was a contributing photographer for Vanity Fair, and co-directed the Afghan war film “Restrepo” with author Sebastian Junger. The last tweet on his Twitter account reads, “In besieged Libyan city of Misrata. Indiscriminate shelling by Qaddafi forces. No sign of NATO.”

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The war in Libya has been intensely dangerous for journalists. Beyond the multiple kidnappings and abuses reporters have suffered, Hetherington’s death brings the number of journalists killed to at least two.

Hondros had been working for Getty in Libya. On Wednesday, the agency posted new photos taken just before Hondros was injured. They show just how close he was to the fighting and to the destruction it was causing.

African Union Says Gadhafi Accepts Cease-Fire Plan.

TRIPOLI, Libya - A delegation of African leaders said Sunday that their Libyan counterpart Moammar Gadhafi accepted their “road map” for a cease-fire with rebels, whom they will meet with Monday. They met hours after NATO airstrikes battered Gadhafi’s tanks, helping Libyan rebels push back government troops that had been advancing quickly toward the opposition’s eastern stronghold.

The terms of the African Union’s road map were unclear - such as whether it would require Gadhafi to pull his troops out of cities as rebels have demanded.

“We have completed our mission with the brother leader, and the brother leader’s delegation has accepted the road map as presented by us,” said South African President Jacob Zuma. He traveled to Tripoli with the heads of Mali and Mauritania to meet with Gadhafi, whose more than 40-year rule has been threatened by the uprising that began nearly two months ago.

Rebel fighters watch incoming artillery fire as they retreat from Gadhafi forces in the desert between the towns of Ajdabiya and Brega on Sunday.”We will be proceeding tomorrow to meet the other party to talk to everybody and present a political solution,” Zuma said. He called on NATO to end airstrikes to “give the cease-fire a chance.”

Gadhafi has ignored the cease-fire he announced after international airstrikes were authorized last month, and he rejects demands from the rebels, the U.S. and its European allies that he relinquish power immediately.

Gadhafi enjoys substantial support from countries of the AU, an organization that he chaired two years ago and helped transform using Libya’s oil wealth. So it is not clear whether rebels would accept the AU as a fair broker.Though the AU has condemned attacks on civilians, last week its current leader, Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, decried foreign intervention in Libya’s nearly two-month-old uprising, which he declared to be an internal problem.

An official from the African bloc, Khellaf Brahan, said previously that its proposals call for an immediate cease-fire, opening channels for humanitarian aid and talks between the rebels and the government.Through the rebels have improved discipline and organization, they remain a far less powerful force than Gadhafi’s troops. Members of the international community have grown doubtful that the opposition can overthrow Gadhafi even with air support, and some are weighing options such as arming the fighters even while attempting diplomatic solutions.

A rebel battlefield commander said four airstrikes Sunday largely stopped heavy shelling by government forces of the eastern city of Ajdabiya - a critical gateway to the opposition’s de facto capital of Benghazi. NATO’s leader of the operation said the airstrikes destroyed 11 tanks near Ajdabiya and another 14 near Misrata, the only city rebels still hold in the western half of Libya.

NATO is operating under a U.N. resolution authorizing a no-fly zone and airstrikes to protect Libyan civilians.

The fighting in Ajdabiya on Sunday killed 23 people, 20 of them pro-Gadhafi forces, said Mohammed Idris, the supervisor of a hospital in the city. A total of 38 people were killed in fighting over the weekend, including 11 rebels and seven civilians, Idris said.

The main front line in Libya’s uprising runs along a 600-mile (1,000-kilometer) coastal highway from Benghazi, Libya’s second-largest city, to Tripoli, the capital, where Gadhafi’s power is concentrated. Rebels have been pushed back on two previous advances toward Tripoli, both times as they approached the heavily fortified Gadhafi stronghold of Sirte.

Over the past few days, Gadhafi’s forces have been knocking the rebels back eastward in their most sustained offensive since international airstrikes drove them back last month. If they had taken Ajdabiya, they would have had a clear path to opposition territory including Benghazi, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) away along the coast.

“If he controls Ajdabiya, he makes us feel like we are unsafe because he can move anywhere in the east,” said Col. Hamid Hassy, the rebel battlefield commander.

Western airstrikes, initially conducted under U.S. leadership, began on March 19 to repel Gadhafi’s forces just as they were at the doorstep of Benghazi.

Hassy said Gadhafi’s forces fled the western gate of Ajdabiya and by mid-afternoon had been pushed back about 40 miles (60 kilometers) west of the city. However, sporadic shelling could still be heard around western Ajdabiya.

A body brought to the morgue, said to be a rebel fighter shot near Ajdabiya’s west gate, had his hands and feet bound. Another body was an Algerian who had been fighting for Gadhafi, Dr. Suleiman Rafathi said at the hospital. He said the man’s ID confirmed his origin, but that rebels took the ID before an Associated Press reporter arrived. Rebels have said many Gadhafi fighters are foreign mercenaries.

Another Gadhafi fighter, about 20 years old, was on a ventilator - brain-dead but with a beating heart, Rafathi said.

Rebel fighter Sami Kabdi said the young man had been firing out a window of a school. When rebels told him to surrender, he put the muzzle of his AK-47 under his chin and fired, Kabdi and Rafathi said.

Rebels had been growing critical of NATO, which accidentally hit opposition fighters in deadly airstrikes twice this month. They have complained that the alliance was too slow and imprecise, but Hassy, the rebel commander, said it is getting better.

“To tell you the truth, at first NATO was paralyzed but now they have better movement and are improving,” he said.

The commander of the NATO operation, Canadian Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard, stressed in a NATO statement that the point of the airstrikes was to protect civilians, not to work hand-in-hand with the rebels.

“The situation in Ajdabiya, and Misrata in particular, is desperate for those Libyans who are being brutally shelled by the regime. To help protect these civilians we continued to strike these forces hard,” Bouchard said.

NATO noted that it is enforcing the no-fly zone on both sides, having intercepted a rebel MiG-23 fighter jet that it forced back to the airport Saturday.In the embattled city of Misrata, the lone rebel outpost in the west of the country, residents said shelling continued Sunday, killing one and wounding two others seriously.

“We woke up at 7 a.m. from the tank fire,” said a doctor working at the local hospital who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

Libya’s third-largest city has been pounded without cease for more than a month by Gadhafi’s heavy weapons, but the rebels have managed to hold out.

In Tripoli, Libya’s deputy foreign minister accused NATO of a double standard on the no-fly zone, claiming that government forces shot down two U.S.-built Chinook helicopters being used by rebel forces in the east of the country.

“We have a question for the allied forces - is this resolution made for the Libyan government only or everyone in Libya?” he asked.

The report could not be confirmed with the rebels, but journalists in the area did describe seeing at least one helicopter apparently fighting for the rebels in the area Saturday, though it lacked the distinctive double rotor design of the Chinook and appeared to be a Russian-built model.

Envoy Says Gadhafi Seeking End to Libya Crisis.

BENGHAZI, Libya - An envoy of Moammar Gadhafi told Greece’s prime minister Sunday that the Libyan leader was seeking a way out of his country’s crisis two weeks after his government’s attacks to put down a rebellion drew international airstrikes, Greek officials said.

Abdul-Ati al-Obeidi, a former Libyan prime minister who has served as a Gadhafi envoy during the crisis, will travel next to Turkey and Malta in a sign that Gadhafi’s regime may be softening its hard line in the face of the sustained attacks.”From the Libyan envoy’s comments it appears that the regime is seeking a solution,” Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas said in a statement after the meeting in Athens.

The foreign minister said the Greek side stressed the international community’s call for Libya to comply with the U.N. resolution that authorized the airstrikes and demanded Gadhafi and the rebels end hostilities.

The message, Droutsas said, was: “Full respect and implementation of the United Nations decisions, an immediate cease-fire, an end to violence and hostilities, particularly against the civilian population of Libya.”

Gadhafi’s government has declared several cease-fires but has not abided by them.

Few other details of the Athens talks were released publicly.On Friday, the Libyan envoy had said Gadhafi’s government was attempting to hold talks with the U.S., Britain and France in an effort to halt the international airstrikes that began March 19 and which have pounded Libya’s troops and armor and grounded its air force.

Gadhafi’s superior forces had been close to taking the rebel capital of Benghazi in eastern Libya before the international military campaign.

Rebel forces made up of defected army units and armed civilians have since seized much of Libya’s eastern coast, but have been unable to push westward toward the capital, Tripoli.

On Sunday, Gadhafi’s forces pressed on with attacks against Misrata, the last key city in the western half of the country still largely under rebel control despite a weeks-long assault.

Government troops besieged civilian areas for around two hours Sunday morning with Grad rockets and mortar shells and lined a main street with snipers, said a doctor in the city.

Two shells landed on a field hospital, killing one person and injuring 11, he said. The attacks, including tank fire, began again after nightfall, he said. He did not want to be identified by name out of fear for his security.

A Turkish ship carrying 250 wounded from Misrata docked in Benghazi Sunday. The boat, which carried medical supplies, was also expected to pick up around 60 wounded people being treated in various hospitals in Benghazi, as well as 30 Turks and 40 people from Greece, Ukraine, Britain, Uzbekistan, Germany and Finland.

A leader of the rebel movement, meanwhile, sought to ease concerns from Western governments about its character and goals, emphasizing in an interview that the rebels will not allow Islamic extremists to hijack their plans to install a parliamentary democracy in place of Gadhafi’s four-decade rule.

The issue takes on added importance as Western officials debate whether to send the rebels weaponry in an attempt to help them gain the upper hand over Gadhafi’s superior troops.

“Libyans as a whole - and I am one of them - want a civilian democracy, not dictatorship, not tribalism and not one based on violence or terrorism,” said Abdel-Hafidh Ghoga, vice chairman of the opposition’s National Provisional Council.

The council, based in Benghazi, was formed to represent the opposition in the eastern Libyan cities that shook off control of the central government in a series of popular uprisings that began Feb. 15.

In Washington, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee in the House of Representatives was among several key lawmakers cautioning that the U.S. and its allies needed to know much more about the rebel forces before providing them with weapons.

Mike Rogers, a Republican from Michigan, said on NBC television’s “Meet the Press” that there may be strains of al-Qaida within the rebel ranks and the NATO-led coalition in the campaign against Gadhafi should proceed with caution before arming them.

Libya’s opposition has said any extremists among their ranks would be few in number, and Gadhafi’s own punishing campaigns crushed Islamic militants in the country years ago.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Sunday that his country would neither arm the rebels nor send ground troops to Libya.

“We have taken no decision to arm the rebels, the opposition, the pro-democracy people - whatever one wants to call them,” he told the BBC.

A British diplomatic team arrived Saturday in the rebels’ de facto capital of Benghazi to speak to members of the opposition council to learn more about their aims, British officials said Sunday.

Other fighting Sunday was concentrated around the strategic oil town of Brega, as it has been repeatedly during weeks of back-and-forth battling along Libya’s eastern coast. The rebels, backed by airstrikes, made incremental advances.

Rebels fired truck-mounted rocket launchers, then moved to avoid government counter-strikes, suggesting improving tactics and training.In Tripoli, an opposition supporter said Sunday that anxiety was spreading in areas of the capital as dozens of people disappear in pre-dawn raids, apparently carried out by Gadhafi’s security apparatus.

“They pick them up from their houses and they disappear. We don’t know if they’re still alive or dead,” said the activist who spoke on condition he not be identified to avoid arrest.

He also described the city as being locked down, saying many people were staying at home, shops were closed and hundreds of cars were lining up for hours at gas stations as people hoard supplies.

The U.S. was to have stopped flying strike missions in Libya as of Sunday after it passed control of the air operation to NATO last week. But alliance spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said the U.S. approved a request to extend that role until Monday because of “poor weather conditions over the last few days.” She did not elaborate.

World Powers Seek Possible Deal for Gadhafi Exit.

LONDON — International leaders were gathering in London on Tuesday seeking to plot out an endgame for Moammar Gadhafi’s tottering regime and to strike agreement on plans for Libya’s future.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Arab League and as many as 40 global foreign ministers were joining the talks - seeking to ratchet up pressure on Gadhafi to quit.

Italy’s Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said several nations planned to table a joint deal aimed at swiftly ending the conflict, setting out proposals for a cease-fire, exile for Gadhafi and a framework for talks on Libya’s future between tribal leaders and opposition figures.

Britain and the United States signaled ahead of the talks that they could accept a plan under which Gadhafi quickly leaves Libya and in return escapes a war crimes trial, despite a previous insistence that he must face the International Criminal Court.

“There are some African countries that could offer him hospitality. I hope that the African Union can come up with a valid proposal,” Frattini said Monday.

African Union chairman Jean Ping will attend the talks at London’s Lancaster House alongside delegates who include Qatar’s emir Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani and foreign ministers from Morocco, the UAE, Jordan and Iraq.

Gadhafi “must understand that it would be a gesture of courage on his part to say ‘I am leaving’,” Frattini said.

Turkey, which has offered to attempt to mediate a permanent cease-fire, also said the talks would gauge international support for scenarios under which Gadhafi could retreat into exile.

Britain’s Foreign Secretary William Hague, who was hosting the summit, said Tuesday that - while the U.K. hoped Gadhafi would face international justice - it was down to Libyans to decide his fate.

“Of course where he goes, if he goes, is up to him and the people of Libya to determine and we will not necessarily be in control of that,” Hague told BBC radio.

International allies were “not going to choose Col. Gadhafi’s retirement home,” he added.

Britain’s ambassador to the U.S., Nigel Sheinwald, said Libyan opposition envoy Mahmoud Jibril would meet Tuesday with ministers and officials in London, but won’t attend the main conference. Jibril was also holding separate talks with Clinton.

A senior U.S. administration official said the U.S. would also soon send diplomat Chris Stevens to Benghazi to meet with rebel leaders.

In a joint statement, British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Jibril’s Interim National Transitional Council could play a key role in deciding Libya’s future following Gadhafi’s potential ouster.

The leaders said that the transitional council and “civil society leaders, as well as all those prepared to join the process of transition to democracy,” should begin work to decide how Libya moves toward democratic elections. They said Gadhafi loyalists were facing a final chance to ditch support for the dictator and side with those seeking political reform.

Sarkozy and Cameron discussed the meeting late Monday in a video conference with President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

In a speech Monday night at the National Defense University at Fort McNair, Obama said the London talks would decide on what political effort would be needed - alongside military action - to increase pressure on Gadhafi.

“While our military mission is narrowly focused on saving lives, we continue to pursue the broader goal of a Libya that belongs not to a dictator, but to its people,” Obama said.

Spain’s foreign minister Trinidad Jimenez was quoted Tuesday as telling El Pais newspaper that said she believed a cease-fire and mediation over exile for Gadhafi was a likely scenario.

“Obama put it very well, (the fall of) Gadhafi is not the military objective, but it is a political one. Each country must go along with that process but the protagonists have to be the Libyan people themselves,” she added.

Libya’s deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaim told a news conference in Tripoli that foreign leaders had no right to attempt to impose a new political system on the country.

“Libya is an independent country with full sovereignty,” he told reporters. “The Libyan people are the only ones that have the right decide the country’s future, and planting division of Libya or imposing a foreign political system is not accepted.”

Kaim called on nations attending the London talks to agree on a peace deal.

“We call upon Obama and the Western leaders to be peacemakers not war mongers, and not to push Libyans towards a civil war and more death and destruction,” he said.

The London meeting - which will also be attended by NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen - was also expected to discuss disputes over the scope of NATO-led coalition airstrikes, and to more clearly define the extent of cooperation between Libya’s rebel groups and international military commanders.

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov - who will not attend the talks - has said the international air campaign which began March 19 has breached the terms of the U.N. resolution which authorized the enforcement of a no-fly zone over Libya.

Cameron insisted that the coalition had not gone beyond its remit, but acknowledged the impact had been to force Gadhafi’s military into a retreat from a number of key towns.

“We should do everything we can to protect people and actually - as a result - that is actually driving back the Gadhafi regime,” Cameron said.

Sarkozy and Cameron said in their joint statement that the military action would end only when civilians were free from the threat of attack.

Libyan Woman Claims Rape By Soldiers, Is Dragged Away.

TRIPOLI, Libya — A distraught Libyan woman stormed into a Tripoli hotel Saturday to tell foreign reporters that government troops raped her, setting off a brawl when hotel staff and government minders tried to detain her.

Iman al-Obeidi was tackled by waitresses and government minders as she sat telling her story to journalists after she rushed into the restaurant at the Rixos hotel where a number of foreign journalists were eating breakfast.

She claimed loudly that troops had detained her a checkpoint, tied her up, abused her, then led her away to be gang raped.

Her story could not be independently verified, but the dramatic scene provided a rare firsthand glimpse of the brutal crackdown on public dissent by Moammar Gadhafi’s regime as the Libyan leader fights a rebellion against his rule that began last month.

The regime has been keeping up a drumbeat of propaganda in the Tripoli-centered west of the country under its control even as it faces a weeklong international air campaign against the Libyan military.

At a hastily arranged press conference after the incident, government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said investigators had told him the woman was drunk and possibly mentally challenged.

Before she was dragged out of the hotel, al-Obeidi managed to tell journalists that she was detained by a number of troops at a Tripoli checkpoint on Wednesday. She said they were drinking whiskey and handcuffed her. She said 15 men later raped her.

“They tied me up … they even defecated and urinated on me,” she said, her face streaming with tears. “The Gadhafi militiamen violated my honor.”

The woman, who appeared in her 30’s, wore a black robe and a floral scarf around her neck and identified herself. She had scratches on her face and she pulled up her black robe to reveal a bloodied thigh. She said neighbors in the area where she was detained helped her escape.

The Associated Press only identifies rape victims who volunteer their names.

As al-Obeidi spoke, a hotel waitress brandished a butter knife, a government minder reached for his handgun and another waitress pulled a jacket tightly over her head.

Al-Obeidi said she was targeted by the troops because she’s from the eastern city of Benghazi, a rebel stronghold.

The waiters called her a traitor and told her to shut up. She retorted: “Easterners – we’re all Libyan brothers, we are supposed to be treated the same, but this is what the Gadhafi militiamen did to me, they violated my honor.”

It soon turned into a scene of chaos with journalists attempting to protect the woman from government minders who physically attacked and intimidated her.

Journalists who tried to intervene were pushed out of the way by the minders. A British television reporter was punched, and CNN’s camera was smashed on the ground and ripped to pieces by the government minders.

Eventually the minders overpowered the woman and led her outside, shoving her into a car that sped away. Al-Obeidi kept crying that she was certain she would be thrown in jail. She begged photographers to take her picture, raising her robe to show them her bruised body. A minder tried to cover her mouth with his hand to keep her from talking.

“Look at what happens – Gadhafi’s militiamen kidnap women at gunpoint, and rape them … they rape them,” al-Obeidi screamed.

She said she wanted to be taken to see the leader himself.

“I want to see Moammar Gadhafi. Didn’t he say that every victim will have justice? I want my rights,” she said.

The government spokesman said the woman was under investigation.

“The investigators did phone me and told me the lady is drunk and that she seems to be suffering mentally,” Ibrahim said. “They are checking on her health condition, her mental condition, whether she was really abused or if these were fantasies.”

Gadhafi’s crackdown has been the region’s most violent against the wave of anti-government protests sweeping the Middle East. Tensions have been rising between foreign reporters in the Libyan capital and the government minders who have sought to tightly control what they see and whom they talk to. Most of the international press corps is being housed at the Rixos hotel.

Libya Says It’s Ready to Implement a ‘Road Map’.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia —A former Libyan prime minister said Friday that his country is ready to hold talks with opposition rebels and to accept political reforms, possibly including elections.

The announcement came only hours after a top African Union official called for a transition period in Libya that would lead to democratic elections. The AU met Friday with Libyan delegates in Ethiopia’s capital.

Abdul-Ati al-Obeidi, a member of the delegation, said the current violence in Libya is being carried out by “extremists” and foreign intervention.

“We are ready to discuss what the Libyan people want,” he said. “What kind of reform do they want? If it is elections we are willing to discuss about the details. We are willing to negotiate with anyone. These are our people. There is no division between the Libyan people; there is a division between extremists and the Libyan people.”

The AU did not immediately release a statement, so there was no immediate indication of what their policy plan is.

The delegation also said in a statement that Libya’s government is committed to a cease-fire and that it demanded an end to air attacks and a naval blockade carried out by the United States and other Western forces.

The delegation also accused the military action of killings “hundreds” of civilians, though Western powers say there has been no proof of any civilian deaths caused by the international military intervention.

Rebel leaders indicated that they had no representatives at the talks.

African Union commission chairman Jean Ping said in an opening speech that the AU favors an inclusive transitional period that would lead to democratic elections.

Ping stressed the inevitability of political reforms in Libya and called the aspirations of the Libyan people “legitimate.” He said the international community needed to agree on a way forward.The statement calling for a transition toward elections is the strongest Libya-related statement to come out of the AU since the Libya crisis began, and could be seen as a strong rebuke to a leader who has long been well regarded by the continental body.

Although U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had indicated on Thursday that he expected the rebels to be part of the talks, Mustafa Gheriani, a spokesman for the opposition rebels, said he has heard nothing about the meetings.

“The position of the national council has been clear from the beginning - no negotiations,” he said. “All he has to do is stop bombing and leave the country,” Gheriani said, referring to Gadhafi.

Libya is one of the largest donors to the AU, and in 2009 Gadhafi was given the AU’s rotating, one-year chairmanship.

Gadhafi was also instrumental in the formation of the AU in 2002, and used Libya’s oil wealth to fund the transformation of the old Organization of African Unity into the present-day African Union. He often has attended AU summits flanked by a coterie of extravagantly dressed men who call themselves the “traditional kings of Africa” and describe Gadhafi as the lead king.South Africa-based analyst Francis Ikome said if there is one organization Gadhafi might listen to, it’s the AU, but that the group’s declaration was “too much, too late.” He said it’s difficult to talk about elections while a war is going on and in such a tribal environment as Libya.

“Gadhafi has his back against the wall,” said Ikome, who leads the African Conflict Prevention program at the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies. “This has the potential of radicalizing him. He knows if he leaves power, his next destination could be (the International Criminal Court at) The Hague. So whatever the AU is saying in terms of democratization, it has come too late.”

NATO expects to commence aerial operations over Libya by Monday, Group Capt. Geoffrey Booth from NATO’s military staff said in Brussels on Friday. If the North Atlantic Council, the alliance’s top body, approves a broader mission by then, the NATO force would then be authorized to both intercept any aircraft and conduct air strikes against ground forces threatening civilians.

The entire operation would then fall under a unified command.Libya’s air force has been effectively neutralized by the international military effort, and the government has taken part of its fight to the airwaves. State television has aired pictures of bodies it said were victims of airstrikes, but a U.S. intelligence report bolstered rebel claims that Gadhafi’s forces had simply taken bodies from a morgue.

The U.N. Security Council authorized the embargo and no-fly zone to protect Libyan civilians after Gadhafi launched attacks against anti-government protesters who demanded that he step down after 42 years in power. But rebel advances have foundered, and the two sides have been at stalemate in key cities such as Misrata and Ajdabiya, the gateway to the opposition’s eastern stronghold.

Ajdabiya has been under siege for more than a week, with the rebels holding the city center but facing relentless shelling from government troops positioned on the outskirts.

NATO Deal on Libya Doesn’t Mean Quick Exit for US.

WASHINGTON — NATO agreed to take over command of the newly established no-fly zone over Libya, but the alliance’s new role doesn’t allow the U.S. to make a quick exit from the costly military operation as the Obama administration had wanted.

American sea and airpower remain key parts of the effort to keep forces loyal to Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi from attacking civilians after allies balked at assuming complete command of the campaign that began six days ago. The U.S., along with France and Great Britain, maintains primary responsibility for attacks on Gadhafi’s ground forces and air defense systems, which are the toughest and most controversial parts of the operation.

The Obama administration had sought a clear signal from NATO on the hand over. Instead, it got a mixed message.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen initially announced the agreement in Brussels, saying the alliance could eventually take more responsibility, “but that decision has not been reached yet.” Several NATO members - including Turkey, the alliance’s only Muslim member - had resisted any involvement in ground attacks.

After Rasmussen’s remarks, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton praised NATO for taking over the no-fly zone, even though the U.S. had hoped the alliance would take full control of the operation authorized by the United Nations, including the protection of Libyan civilians and supporting humanitarian aid efforts on the ground.

“We are taking the next step: We have agreed along with our NATO allies to transition command and control for the no-fly zone over Libya to NATO,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said.

“All 28 allies have also now authorized military authorities to develop an operations plan for NATO to take on the broader civilian protection mission,” she added.

Lines of authority were unclear Thursday night, but it appeared the NATO decision sets up dual command centers and opens the door to confusion and finger-pointing. U.S. commanders would presumably be chiefly responsible for ensuring that the NATO protective flights do not conflict with planned combat operations under U.S. command.

Senior administration officials said the agreement came in a four-way telephone call with Clinton and the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Turkey. The four worked out the way forward, which included the immediate transfer of command and control of the no-fly zone over Libya, and by early next week of the rest of the U.N.-mandated mission.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military planning, said the actual handover of the no-fly zone would occur in one or two days. They said NATO would have a final operational plan by over the weekend for how it would assume control over the rest of the protection mission, and that it would be executable by Tuesday’s meeting in London of nations contributing to the military action.

Clinton also praised the United Arab Emirates for becoming the second Arab country after Qatar to send planes to help the mission to protect Libyan civilians, enforce the U.N. arms embargo on the North African country and support humanitarian aid efforts. The U.A.E. will deploy 12 planes.The Pentagon, meanwhile, indicated U.S. warplanes will keep flying strike missions over Libya. Navy Vice Adm. William Gortney, staff director for the military Joint Chiefs, told reporters that the American role will mainly be in support missions such as refueling allied planes and providing aerial surveillance of Libya. But the U.S. will still fly combat missions as needed, Gortney said.

“And I would anticipate that we would continue to provide some of the interdiction strike packages as well, should that be needed by the coalition,” he added, referring to combat missions such as attacks on Libyan mobile air defenses, ammunition depots, air fields and other assets that support Libyan ground forces.

Big Political Challenges Greet Obama’s Return Home.

WASHINGTON — Returning home to some messy politics, President Barack Obama is confronting a battery of challenges, from a spending standoff that threatens to shut down the government to congressional angst over the U.S.-led attacks on Libya. Foreign crises rage across Africa and the Middle East, and Americans still want the economy to improve more quickly.The president left behind a wave of goodwill in Latin America as he shored up alliances that the White House said would prove pivotal for years to come. Yet the timing made for political and logistical headaches, as his five-day trip to Brazil, Chile and El Salvador took place just as the U.S. and allies launched a U.N.-sanctioned assault against Moammar Gadhafi’s menacing regime.Now lawmakers are questioning the costs and objective of the military action while voicing growing frustration that Obama didn’t consult with Congress more thoroughly before authorizing the U.S. airstrikes. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, encapsulated much of the GOP sentiment by asking in a tweet, “Is Congress going to assert its constitutional role or be a potted plant?”

No sooner had Obama touched down on U.S. soil late Wednesday afternoon then House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, issued a blistering letter demanding more details about the steps ahead on Libya.

“I and many other members of the House of Representatives are troubled that U.S. military resources were committed to war without clearly defining for the American people, the Congress and our troops what the mission in Libya is and what America’s role is in achieving that mission,” Boehner said.

The criticism comes not just from the right. Liberal Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, has said he intends to offer legislation to block the U.S. from funding military actions in Libya. Moderate Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., an authoritative voice on military issues as a former Navy secretary, said the U.S. strategy lacks clarity and the endpoint is undefined.

Obama, in news conferences from Santiago to San Salvador, has been adamant in saying the main U.S. military role will be limited and front-loaded as allies strive to keep Gadhafi from killing those seeking to oust him. Insisting the U.S. will soon play a supporting role, Obama told Univision, “The exit strategy will be executed this week.”

Obama will have more opportunities in the coming days to speak about the fast-changing Libya conflict, if he chooses. No specific address to the nation is planned.

The military challenge comes as the threat of a government shutdown looms again.

Federal operations are churning along on another temporary spending bill, this one expiring April 8. That means Obama has just over two weeks to help broker a deal to keep the government running for the six months left in the fiscal year. House Republicans don’t want to budge from the $61 billion in steep cuts they’ve approved, but that won’t fly in the Senate and Obama has threatened to veto it, leaving the path to compromise unclear.

“I can’t remember a more action-packed agenda, with two major, urgent items at the top of the list,” said Norman Ornstein, who studies Congress and politics at the American Enterprise Institute. “Libya, of course, but with the added twist of harsh criticism of the president’s failure to bring in Congress. And the budget battle, which I believe is much more likely than not to lead to a shutdown.”

The pressure will be on Obama to intervene in the budget talks.

Also looming is a fight over the federal debt limit, which Democrats cannot increase without some Republican support in both the Senate and House. The administration has warned Congress that failing to raise the debt limit would lead to an unprecedented default on the national debt and wreck the national economic recovery.

The Treasury Department estimates the government will hit the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling sometime between April 15 and May 31. But Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has warned that GOP senators would not vote to increase the federal debt limit unless Obama agreed to significant long-term budget savings that could include cost curbs for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Republican leaders also are pounding on Obama’s policies at the one-year anniversary of his signature health care law, which also occurred just as he returned home. The law divides the nation just as much as it did a year ago.

The administration and its allies celebrated the anniversary, but it came and went without comment from the president.

Obama is operating in a shrinking window of governing until the politics of his 2012 re-election essentially halt cooperation in Washington.

Obama will try to pick up with his domestic agenda of cutting spending but redirecting funding to make the country competitive in the longer term. He spent much of March emphasizing education, and that’s about to resume: He will conduct a Univision-sponsored televised town hall about education at a District of Columbia high school on Monday.

Although Libya dominated news coverage during the president’s absence, it is a broader revolt in the Arab world that keeps bearing down on him. Support for Yemen’s U.S.-backed president is crumbling among political allies. Tensions remain high in Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th fleet. The White House now finds itself routinely condemning violent crackdowns on protests.

And there’s this: It won’t be long before Obama is overseas again.

In two months, he’ll be pushing the U.S. agenda on a trip to England, Ireland, Poland and France.

Obama: US Will Turn Over Control of Libya Effort.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The four-day air assault in Libya will soon achieve the objectives of establishing a no-fly zone and averting a massacre of civilians by Moammar Gadhafi’s troops, President Barack Obama said Tuesday, adding that despite squabbling among allies, the United States will hand off control of the operation to other countries within days.

“When this transition takes place, it is not going to be our planes that are maintaining the no-fly zone,” the president said at a news conference in El Salvador as he neared the end of a Latin American trip overshadowed by events in Libya. “It is not going to be our ships that are necessarily enforcing the arms embargo. That’s precisely what the other nations are going to do.”Obama said he has “absolutely no doubt” that a non-U.S. command entity can run the operation, although perhaps the most obvious candidate - the NATO military alliance - has yet to sort out a political agreement to do so. The president said NATO was meeting to “work out some of the mechanisms.”Despite the cost - not only in effort, resources and potential casualties, but also in taxpayer dollars - Obama said he believes the American public is supportive of such a mission.

“This is something that we can build into our budget. And we’re confident that not only can the goals be achieved, but at the end of the day the American people are going to feel satisfied that lives were saved and people were helped,” he said.

Obama spoke as one senior American military official said the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar was expected to start flying air patrols over Libya by this weekend, becoming the first member of the Arab League to participate directly in the military mission. Obama and NATO had insisted from the start on Arab support.

The president also suggested the administration would not need to request funding from Congress for the air operations but would pay for them out of money already approved.

Administration officials briefed lawmakers during the day about costs and other details to date.

Domestic criticism of the operation has been muted so far, with the president out of the country, but is likely to increase once he flies home on Wednesday - a few hours earlier than had been scheduled.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, meanwhile, said the administration is getting reports - of questionable credibility - that some in Gadhafi’s inner circle may be looking for a way out of the crisis. She said some of them, allegedly acting on the Libyan leader’s behalf, have reached out to people in Europe and elsewhere to ask, in effect, “How do we get out of this?”“Some of it is theater,” Clinton said in an interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer. “Some of it is, you know, kind of, shall we say game playing.” She added: “A lot of it is just the way he behaves. It’s somewhat unpredictable. But some of it we think is exploring. You know, ‘What are my options? Where could I go? What could I do?’ And we would encourage that.”

The Pentagon said two dozen more Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched from U.S. and British submarines late Monday and early Tuesday against Libyan targets, raising the total to 161 aimed at disabling Gadhafi’s air defenses.Adm. Samuel J. Locklear III said Libyan ground troops will be more vulnerable as the coalition grows in size and capability, but he declined to provide details of future targeting. He spoke to reporters at the Pentagon from aboard his command ship in the Mediterranean Sea.

The president and Pentagon officials have stressed since the military campaign began that America would quickly give other countries the lead.

“I think fairly shortly we are going to be able to say that we’ve achieved the objective of a no-fly zone. We will also be able to say that we have averted immediate tragedy,” Obama said.

He told reporters he had spoken earlier with British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy in hopes of quickly resolving a dispute over the transition of the military mission.

With congressional critics growing more vocal, the president defended the wisdom of the operation so far.

“It is in America’s national interests to participate … because no one has a bigger stake in making sure that there are basic rules of the road that are observed, that there is some semblance of order and justice, particularly in a volatile region that’s going through great changes,” Obama said

With longtime autocratic governments under pressure elsewhere in the Arab world, the president made clear his decision to dispatch U.S. planes and ships did not automatically signal he would do so everywhere.

“That doesn’t mean we can solve every problem in the world,” he said.

Several members of Congress, including a number from Obama’s own party, were increasingly questioning the wisdom of U.S. involvement.

“We began a military action at the same time that we don’t have a clear diplomatic policy, or a clear foreign policy when it comes to what’s going on in Libya,” said Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., adding that the Obama administration lacks a clear understanding of rebel forces trying to oust Gadhafi, who has ruled for 42 years.

“Do we know what their intentions would be? Would they be able to govern if they were to succeed? And the answer is we don’t really know,” Webb said.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, said he would offer an amendment to the next budget resolution that would prohibit taxpayer dollars from being used to fund U.S. military operations in Libya.

The Marine Corps, meanwhile, offered fresh details of its role in the rescue of an Air Force F-15E pilot who ejected over eastern Libya on Monday. The plane’s weapons system officer, who also ejected and made it safely back to U.S. control, was recovered in a separate operation not involving the Marines.Unconfirmed reports from Libya said a number of civilians were wounded, apparently during the pilot rescue, but the circumstances were murky.

A senior Marine Corps officer at the Pentagon, speaking on condition of anonymity because the F-15E’s crash was still under investigation, said that during the course of the rescue two 500-pound bombs were dropped by Marine AV-8B Harrier jets.

The officer said the bombs were requested by the downed pilot, who reported concern that possibly hostile forces were approaching. The officer said it was unclear what the two bombs hit.

The pilot was picked up by an MV-22 Osprey aircraft that flew - along.

Cruise Missile Slams Gadhafi’s Compound Near Tent.

TRIPOLI, Libya — A cruise missile blasted Moammar Gadhafi’s residential compound in an attack that carried as much symbolism as military effect, and fighter jets destroyed a line of tanks moving on the rebel capital. The U.S. said the international assault would hit any government forces attacking the opposition.

Oil prices jumped to near $103 a barrel Monday in Asia after the Libyan leader vowed a “long war” amid a second night of allied strikes in the OPEC nation.

It was not known where Gadhafi was when the missile hit near his iconic tent late Sunday, but it seemed to show that while the allies trade nuances over whether the Libyan leader’s fall is a goal of their campaign - he is not safe.Half of the round, three-story administration building was knocked down, smoke was rising from it and pieces of the missile were scattered around, according to Associated Press photographer escorted to the scene by the Libyan government. About 300 Gadhafi supporters were in the compound at the time. It was not known if any were hurt.The U.S. military said the bombardment so far - a rain of Tomahawk cruise missiles and precision bombs from American and European aircraft, including long-range stealth B-2 bombers - had hobbled Gadhafi’s air defenses.

In addition to targeting anti-aircaft sites, U.S., British and French planes also went after tanks headed toward Benghazi, in the opposition-held eastern half of the country. On Sunday, at least seven demolished tanks smoldered in a field 12 miles (20 kilometers) south of Benghazi, many of them with their turrets and treads blown off, alongside charred armored personnel carriers, jeeps and SUVs of the kind used by Gadhafi fighters.

“I feel like in two days max we will destroy Gadhafi,” said Ezzeldin Helwani, 35, a rebel standing next to the smoldering wreckage of an armored personnel carrier, the air thick with smoke and the pungent smell of burning rubber. In a grisly sort of battle trophy, celebrating fighters hung a severed goat’s head with a cigarette in its mouth from the turret of one of the gutted tanks.The strikes that began early Sunday gave respite to Benghazi, which the day before had been under a heavy attack that killed at least 120 people. The calm highlighted the dramatic turnaround that the allied strikes bring to Libya’s month-old upheaval: For the past 10 days, Gadhafi’s forces had been on a triumphant offensive against the rebel-held east, driving opposition fighters back with the overwhelming firepower of tanks, artillery, warplanes and warships.

Now Gadhafi’s forces are potential targets for U.S. and European strikes. The U.N. resolution authorizing international military action in Libya not only sets up a no-fly zone but allows “all necessary measures” to prevent attacks on civilians.

But the U.S. military, for now at the lead of the international campaign, is trying to walk a fine line over the end game of the assault. It is avoiding for now any appearance that it aims to take out Gadhafi or help the rebels oust him, instead limiting its stated goals to protecting civilians.

At the Pentagon, Navy Vice Adm. William E. Gortney underlined that strikes are not specifically targeting the Libyan leader or his residence in Tripoli. He said that any of Gadhafi’s ground forces advancing on the rebels were open targets.

“If they are moving on opposition forces … yes, we will take them under attack,” he told reporters.

“We judge these strikes to have been very effective in significantly degrading the regime’s air defense capability,” Gortney said. “We believe his forces are under significant stress and suffering from both isolation and a good deal of confusion.”

A military official said Air Force B-2 stealth bombers flew 25 hours in a round trip from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri and dropped 45 2,000-pound bombs.

What happens if rebel forces eventually go on the offensive against Gadhafi’s troops remains unclear. Gortney would not say whether strikes would hit Libyan troops fighting back against rebel assaults.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said late Sunday that the U.S. expects turn over control of the operation to a coalition headed by France, Britain or NATO “in a matter of days,” reflecting concern that the U.S. military was stretched thin by its current missions. Turkey was blocking NATO action, which requires agreement by all 28 members of the alliance.

Sunday night, heavy anti-aircraft fire erupted repeatedly in the capital, Tripoli, with arcs of red tracer bullets and exploding shells in the dark sky - marking the start of a second night of international strikes. Gadhafi supporters in the streets shot automatic weapons in the air in a show of defiance. It was not immediately known what was being targeted in the new strikes.

Libyan army spokesman Col. Milad al-Fokhi said Libyan army units had been ordered to cease fire at 9 p.m. local time, but the hour passed with no letup in military activity.

Gadhafi vowed to fight on. In a phone call to Libyan state television Sunday, he said he would not let up on Benghazi and said the government had opened up weapons depots to all Libyans, who were now armed with “automatic weapons, mortars and bombs.” State television said Gadhafi’s supporters were converging on airports as human shields.

“We promise you a long war,” he said.

Throughout the day Sunday, Libyan TV showed a stream of what it said were popular demonstrations in support of Gadhafi in Tripoli and other towns and cities. It showed cars with horns blaring, women ululating, young men waving green flags and holding up pictures of the Libyan leader. Women and children chanted, “God, Moammar and Libya, that’s it!”

“Our blood is green, not red,” one unidentified woman told the broadcaster, referring to the signature color of Gadhafi’s regime. “He is our father, we will be with him to the last drop of blood. Our blood is green with our love for him.”