"Not crazy enough"
Misrata has experienced in recent days of heavy fighting in which rebel soldiers have pushed the pro-Qaddafi on the outskirts of the city. Rockets and artillery shells rained down on the city, seemingly at random. Explosions and fighting have left dozens dead and hundreds wounded since Friday. "Misrata is the key to Tripoli. If (Gaddafi) abandons Misrata, he will leave Tripoli. He is not crazy enough to do that", warned Monday the military spokesman of the National Transitional Council (CNT) of Opposition to Benghazi (east), Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani. "I am sure he is trying to regroup its forces and it will try to attack with more power, but I am also confident that it will be harder for him than before," he said Tuesday, Another spokesman for the CNT, Jalal al-Gallali.
According to him, Colonel Qaddafi has embarked on a "lost battle" because the rebels are more numerous, "better equipped, trained and organized, and more determined than ever". "This combined with the more efficient the fact that NATO, for (Gaddafi), it will be increasingly hard, if not impossible to win," he added.
Sarkozy upbeat
French President Nicolas Sarkozy expressed his optimism. "In Libya, we are optimistic because the Libyan opposition demonstrated great courage and great skill," said Sarkozy during a press conference in Rome. While saying that "the struggle" of the insurgents was conducted "each day more efficiently," he refused to make any estimate on the duration of the conflict. In Tripoli since Friday in raids target of intensive NATO, five explosions rocked Monday night east of the capital, according to witnesses who were not able to specify the sites covered.
On the night of Sunday to Monday, the office of Muammar Gaddafi, in his huge residence located in Tripoli, had been totally destroyed by NATO airstrikes. The raid has 3 dead and 45 wounded, according to the spokesman of the regime, Ibrahim Moussa. Libyan television showed footage of Muammar Qaddafi, apparently relaxed, receiving dignitaries of the regime in his tent at his residence. A television illumination indicated that they had been shot Monday, but it was not possible to verify.
In Moscow, Russia warned that it would not support any new Security Council resolution to the UN on Libya calling for an increase of "foreign interference". In Addis Ababa, the African Union is still trying to find a solution to the conflict, receiving representatives from both sides for a cease-fire. The rebels, however, require the departure of Mr Gaddafi prior to any negotiated solution.
