Qaddafi has little control outside of Tripoli
Image via WikipediaCol. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya kept his grip on the capital on Wednesday, but large areas of the east of the country remained out of his control amid indications that the fighting had reached the northwest of the country around Tripoli.It looks like Qaddafi has less control of the country than he does the spelling of his name. I have given up on consistency in that matter as I post material from several sources. I kind of like the Times spelling, but there are so many different ones based on some phonetic approach, you are just going to have to go with the Libya story as it rolls off the different tongues of those describing it.
Libyans fleeing across the country’s western border into Tunisia reported fighting over the past two nights in the town of Sabratha, home of an important Roman archeological site 50 miles west of Tripoli. Thousands of Libyan forces loyal to Colonel Qaddafi have deployed there, according to Reuters.
“The revolutionary committees are trying to kill everyone who is against Qaddafi,” said a doctor from Sabratha who had just left the country, but who declined to give his name because he wanted to return.
There were also reports of fighting in Misurata, a provincial center 130 miles west of the capital. A witness said that messages being broadcast from the loudspeakers of local mosques were urging people to attack government opponents, following Colonel Qaddafi’s defiant television address Tuesday night calling for ordinary citizens to assist in eliminating opponents, promising that the “cockroaches” would be tracked and killed “house by house.”
A local radio station that had been broadcasting opposition messages was reported to have been attacked. In the southern city of Sabha, considered a Qaddafi stronghold, large protests were also reported.
No certain figures for the toll of the unrest have emerged, but the foreign minister of Italy, which has long and close ties with Libya, said it was likely more than 1,000. The minister, Franco Frattini, also said he worried that the violence could incite Islamic extremism.
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This story does give points of concentration of forces, but Qaddafi's call for others to kill his opponents shows how desperate he is. While his forces may be well supplied currently, he is unlikely to find anyone near by to give them logistic help and at some point he is not going to be able to pay the mercenaries.
Outsiders should look at cutting off his cash flow. The oil markets appear to be over reacting to his situation. Libya's production should be easy for the Saudis to make up. If this administration were not so keen on strangling our own domestic production, we would not be paying such a high price for their folly.
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