Libya’s tribes urged Muammar Gaddafi yesterday to cede power, as rebels backed by Nato air strikes said they forced the strongman’s missiles out of range of the lifeline port of Misurata.
Chiefs or representatives of 61 tribes from across the North African country called for an end to Gaddafi’s four-decade rule, in a joint statement released by French writer Bernard-Henri Levy.
“Faced with the threats weighing on the unity of our country, faced with the manoeuvres and propaganda of the dictator and his family, we solemnly declare: Nothing will divide us,” said the statement, released yesterday in Benghazi.
“We share the same ideal of a free, democratic and united Libya.
“The Libya of tomorrow, once the dictator has gone, will be a united Libya, with Tripoli as its capital and where we will at last be free to build a civil society according to our own wishes,” it said.
Levy has become an unofficial spokesman in Paris for the revolt and is credited with pressing President Nicolas Sarkozy to mobilise international political and military support for it.
“Each of the tribes in Libya is represented by at least a representative. In this list of 61 signatures, some tribes are represented 100 per cent, others are still divided,” he said.
Their call came as rebels said they had managed to push back Gaddafi’s forces and secure the port of besieged Misurata, a day after it came under sustained rocket fire.
The insurgents said Nato raids overnight enabled them to force Gaddafi’s troops 40 kilometres from the port of Misurata, which is encircled by regime forces to the east, west and south.
That put Gaddafi’s Grad rockets out of range of the port, an aid conduit for rebels in the western city of half a million people under siege for more than seven weeks.
“Gaddafi’s men are dead. There are still vehicles and burned bodies, and we seized many weapons,” said a rebel leader. On Tuesday, Gaddafi loyalists fired a volley of Grads at the port, killing at least three African refugees and forcing an aid ship to stay out to sea.
Farther west, pro-Gaddafi forces were massed in force yesterday in an apparent bid to recapture the Dehiba border post with Tunisia, a Western military source said.
Witnesses said the area was rocked by artillery and mortar fire.
“There is a lot of fire in the area at the foot of the mountains,” said a taxi driver at the border, 200 kilometres south of Ras Jdir, the main crossing point into Tunisia that the rebels seized last Thursday.
Loyalists also again blasted the western rebel-held town of Zintan with rockets, medics and a witness said.
They have been pounding the town with Grad rockets and gunfire since Sunday, when four people were killed and nine wounded.
British Defence Secretary Liam Fox said the rebels appeared to be gaining ground against Gaddafi, despite Tuesday’s deadly attack on Misurata’s port.