© 2024
NPR for Northern Colorado
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

In Libya: Rebels Edge Forward; U.K. Seeks To Encourage Defectors

Libyan rebels, on the outskirts of the oil port of Brega earlier today (April 5, 2011).
Mahmud Hams
/
AFP/Getty Images
Libyan rebels, on the outskirts of the oil port of Brega earlier today (April 5, 2011).

Some of Tuesday's news about the conflict in Libya:

Update at 9:35 a.m. ET. A Third Of Gadhafi's Military Power Has Been Destroyed, NATO Says:From Brussels, Reuters reports that "Western air strikes have so far destroyed nearly a third of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's military power, a NATO official said on Tuesday. 'The assessment is that we have taken out 30 percent of the military capacity of Gaddafi,' Brigadier General Mark van Uhm, a senior NATO staff officer, told a news briefing."

Our original post:

-- Fighting Continues: "A Western air strike destroyed two of Muammar Gaddafi's military vehicles in the east Libyan oil town of Brega on Tuesday allowing rebels to edge forward, but diplomatic efforts to end the war remained stalled." (Reuters)

-- "U.K. Paves Way For Flight Of Libyan Defectors": "Britain will lift its ban on members of the Libyan regime entering the U.K. if they renounce their loyalty to Muammar Gaddafi, the foreign secretary, William Hague, told MPs as western governments continued to try to engineer a political solution to the deadlocked conflict. The announcement came ahead of news that Scottish authorities investigating the Lockerbie bombing are expected to question Moussa Koussa, Libya's foreign minister and Gaddafi confidant who defected to Britain last week." ( The Guardian)

-- "U.S. Lifts Sanctions On Libya's Ex-Foreign Minister": "The United States lifted financial sanctions against former Libyan foreign minister Moussa Koussa on Monday in the hopes that it will encourage other senior officials in Muammar Gaddafi's regime to defect." ( Reuters)

-- Rebels Prepare To Export Oil:"Libya's opposition groups are said to be making plans to load a tanker due to dock at a terminal near Tobruk. It comes as NATO air strikes were reported against pro-Gaddafi forces and rebels gathered near the town of Brega." ( BBC News)

Note: NPR follows Associated Press style on the spelling of Gadhafi's name. Other news outlets spell it differently.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.