Muammar Gaddafi urged world powers meeting yesterday in London to end their “barbaric” offensive against his oil-rich country as his forces beat back a rebel push on his home town Sirte.
The Libyan strongman likened the Nato-led air strikes targeting his artillery and ground forces to military campaigns launched by Adolf Hitler during World War II.
“Stop your barbaric, unjust offensive on Libya,” Col Gaddafi said in the letter published by the state news agency Jana.
“Leave Libya for the Libyans. You are committing genocide against a peaceful people and a developing nation,” he said in the letter to the London meeting of more than 35 countries to map out a post-Gaddafi future for the north African state.
“It seems that you in Europe and America don’t realise the hellish, barbaric (military) offensive which compares... to Hitler’s campaigns,” Col Gaddafi said.
The air offensive was launched on March 19 by Britain, France and the United States to enforce a UN no-fly zone over Libya and to protect civilians under attack by Col Gaddafi’s forces.
AFP reporters said rebels in eastern Libya retreated yesterday 40 kilometres from their frontline positions to Nofilia, 100 kilometres from Sirte.
The rebels were pummelled by loyalist forces on Monday at the village of Harawa, 60 kilometres from Sirte and came under sustained fire again yesterday, which triggered a stampede of rebel fighters, many fleeing aboard their pickup trucks.
Rebels told AFP they would wait “for Sarkozy planes to strike” before advancing on Sirte – a reference to warplanes from the French government.
Western strikes bolstered the rebels, allowing them to overrun the strategic town of Ajdabiya further east on Saturday, but a 24-hour lull in the air strikes in eastern Libya has left lightly armed rebels exposed to the Col Gaddafi loyalists’ long range weapons.
A rebel spokeman, meanwhile, said tanks and troops loyal to Col Gaddafi swept through rebel-held Misurata yesterday, firing shells as they attacked Libya’s third city, 214 kilometres east of Tripoli.
A doctor at a hospital in Misurata said Col Gaddafi’s forces have killed at least 142 people and wounded more than 1,400 others in an offensive on the city launched on March 18.
Rebels also said a hospital ship was expected to dock in Misrata.
“It is a floating hospital that is being escorted by Nato that was delayed,” a rebel spokesman, rebel spokesman Shamsiddin Abdulmolah said in the insurgents’ stronghold of Benghazi.
On the eve of the London gathering, US President Barack Obama on Monday urged the international community to support “a transition to the future that the Libyan people deserve.”
“Even after Col Gaddafi does leave power, 40 years of tyranny has left Libya fractured and without strong civil institutions,” Mr Obama warned.
“The transition to a legitimate government that is responsive to the Libyan people will be a difficult task,” he added, saying it was a challenge for both the international community and the Libyan people.
President Obama staunchly defended his decision to pound the Col Gaddafi’s troops in a UN-mandated bid to protect civilians.
But he cautioned the military campaign was not aimed at ousting the veteran Libyan leader by force and forcing regime change.
“To be blunt, we went down that road in Iraq,” Mr Obama said. “If we tried to overthrow Col Gaddafi by force, our coalition would splinter. We would likely have to put US troops on the ground, or risk killing many civilians from the air.