North Africa Theater
Hugo Chávez to mediate in Libya crisis?
President Hugo Chávez has spoken to Moammar Qaddafi about creating a bloc of friendly nations—tentatively dubbed the Committee of Peace—to mediate a resolution to Libya's crisis, Venezuela's Information Minister Andres Izarra said through Twitter March 2. "We can confirm Libya's interest in accepting this proposal, as well as the Arab League's," Izarra said. "Today Venezuela presses ahead with its agenda in the Arab world and the world at large to seek peace in Libya."
Libya: rebels retake oil port, US sends warships
Libyan rebel forces launched a successful offensive to drive Moammar Qaddafi's troops from the key eastern oil port of Brega on March 2. "Brega is liberated. We have forced them to 30 kilometers west," said rebel fighter Khalid al-Aqoly. At dawn, Qaddafi's forces, backed by tanks and heavy weaponry, had seized the airport and oil terminal in Brega, the westernmost town held by the comparatively poorly armed opposition. As the battle for Brega raged in a day of fierce fighting, Qaddafi went on television to deny there is any opposition to his 41-year rule. (Middle East Online, March 2)
Tuareg mercenaries said to fight for Qaddafi —as Libyan Tuaregs join revolution
With much of his army defecting to the opposition that now holds Libya's east, Moammar Qaddafi is notoriously making use of mercenaries from countries to the south in Africa. Recent reports indicate that these prominently include Tuareg fighters from Mali and Niger who flocked to Libya in the 1970s and '80s, recruited into an "Islamic Legion" modeled on the French Foreign Legion. A Tuareg leader in Mali, Ibrahim Ag Mohamed Assaleh, said some 16,000 Tuaregs remain in the Libyan security forces. "We've been getting updates from some of them by phone," Assaleh said by telephone. "They say their orders are to protect Qaddafi and they will defend him to the end." (CP, March 1)
Libya: Security Council acts; "crown prince" weighs in
The UN Security Council on Feb. 27 unanimously ordered a travel ban and asset freeze on Moammar Qaddafi's regime, and ordered an investigation into possible crimes against humanity in Libya. The council made a new demand for an immediate end to the violence, which it said had been incited "from the highest level" of Libyan leaders. The travel ban and asset freeze in Resolution 1970 targets the 68-year-old Libyan leader, four of his sons, and top defense and intelligence officials. (Middle East Online, Feb. 27)
Latin leftist leaders in love-in with Libyan lunatic
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez expressed his support for embattled Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi in a Twitter post Feb. 25: "Long live Libya and its independence! Qaddafi is facing a civil war!" The Tweet was immediately protested by Venezuela's opposition, which is also demanding that Qaddafi return a replica of independence hero Simón Bolívar's sword that Chávez decorated him with when he hosted the Libyan in 2009.
Libya: rebels tighten circle around Tripoli; Western intervention next?
Fighting in Libya spread to western towns near Tripoli Feb. 25, as cities in the east organized interim governments, raising the old flag from before Moammar Qaddafi came to power in 1969. Dueling rallies were held in Benghazi, where thousands celebrated their liberation from Qaddafi's regime, and in Tripoli, where the dictator himself appeared at the capital's Green Square. Qaddafi called on his partisans to "defend Libya," pledging, "If needs be, we will open all the arsenals." Before the Tripoli pro-regime rally, security forces fired on protesters, leaving several dead. Oblivious to the deadly repression that preceded his address, the strongman appealed to Libya's youth to "dance and sing, Moammar Qaddafi is with you."
Qaddafi plays al-Qaeda card; neocons assuaged?
In a televised speech from an undisclosed location Feb. 24, embattled Libyan strongman Moammar Qaddafi addressed the elders of a town west of the capital, where he said a drug-crazed mob of youth spurred on by al-Qaeda had killed four police officers. He urged the elders of az-Zawiyah to bring their youth under control. As a popular uprising seizes control of ever more of the country, leaving Qaddafi-loyal forces in only a shrinking ring around Tripoli, the dictator portrays the revolution as an insidious design by the international terrorist network:
Algeria: government lifts 19-year state of emergency
The Algerian Council of Ministers on Feb. 22 approved a draft ordinance repealing the country's 19-year state of emergency, delivering on a promise made the week before. The draft ordinance will have the force of law upon publication in the Official Journal of Algeria, which the Council of Ministers said would be "imminent." The state of emergency, which has been in place since a series of decrees in 1992, gave the government power to limit political freedoms and even peaceful protests. Opponents also claimed that the state of emergency gave rise to arbitrary detentions.

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