TOBRUK, Libya, March 16, (Agencies): Libyan rebels were still fighting pro-Gaddafi forces in Ajdabiya Wednesday, a doctor said, reporting at least 26 dead since the day before, after the government said the key town had fallen. “We received four bodies today, all rebel fighters,” Abdelkarim Mohammed told AFP by telephone from the town’s hospital, adding that 22, mainly civilians, had been brought in Tuesday when Ajdabiya was attacked. Many casualties were members of families killed when artillery or air strikes hit homes and vehicles, Mohammed said. “Clashes broke out inside Ajdabiya around 5 pm (1500 GMT),” he said. “Up till then fighting was going on outside the town, on the east and west, from where we heard explosions.” “The residents are hiding in their homes and all businesses are closed.”

On Tuesday, state television said Ajdabiya, 160 kms (100 miles) south of the rebel capital Benghazi, “is totally controlled and is being cleansed of armed gangs.” Mohammed described the fighting on Tuesday as “terrifying.” Rebel spokesman Khaled al-Sayeh said later the town “is still in the hands of the revolutionaries,” but in Tripoli, Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaaim told AFP: “I confirm that Ajdabiya is under (our) control.” “There are still some elements firing, and our forces are pursuing them,” he said. “We are now beyond Ajdabiya — our forces are heading for Benghazi.” An employee named Madani at the Africa Hotel, on the eastern edge of Ajdabiya, also said the fighting was still going on Wednesday.

“We have heard explosions all day and a shell even landed in front of the hotel,” he said. Rebel military commander General Abdel Fatah Yunis had said Sunday that Ajdabiya was “a vital city,” controlling the roads north to Benghazi and east to Tobruk and the Egyptian border, and would be held at all costs. The lightly armed rebels, who launched their revolt in Benghazi a month ago and began to advance westward towards the capital Tripoli, have been pushed back some 200 kms (125 miles) by Gaddafi’s better-equipped forces in the past week. Muammar Gaddafi’s forces bombarded Libya’s third largest city with artillery fire and advanced on the rebel stronghold of Benghazi on Wednesday as diplomatic steps to prevent him quelling a revolt ran aground.

In Geneva, former French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner berated the international community for its delay in imposing a no-fly zone, saying it was already too late to save lives. “A no-fly zone is a minimum. It’s certainly already too late,” Kouchner said of the crackdown on the revolt, an increasingly vulnerable-looking uprising inspired by pro-democracy rebellions that toppled the Egyptian and Tunisian presidents.
“We’ve known since three weeks that the poor civil society, the poor people, are dying. And we are doing nothing,” he told World Radio Switzerland. In Benghazi, seat of the insurgents’ provisional national council, the mood was a mixture of defiance and nervousness, with some citizens predicting a bloodbath and others confident the rebels would still snatch victory.

Italy, a potential base for a no-fly zone proposed by Britain and France, ruled out military intervention in the oil-exporting north African country. “We cannot have war, the international community should not, does not want and cannot do it,” Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said in Rome. Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi are near the rebel stronghold of Benghazi and “everything will be over in 48 hours”, Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam told France-based TV channel Euronews on Wednesday. He also attacked French President Nicolas Sarkozy for having backed opposition rebels and accused him of having accepted Libyan funds for his election campaign. Asked about talks among world powers to impose a no-fly zone over Libya, Saif al-Islam said: “The military operations are finished. In 48 hours everthing will be over. Our forces are close to Benghazi. Whatever decision is taken, it will be too late.” Gaddafi’s forces pushed towards Benghazi, in eastern Libya, on Wednesday as diplomatic efforts to stop him appeared to lose momentum.

Powers
Britain on Wednesday stressed the need for urgent UN Security Council action on Libya as major powers held new talks on a no-fly zone to counter attacks on rebels by Muammar Gaddafi’s force. Britain, France and Arab nations are seeking to overcome resistance to the no-fly zone from a number of countries on the 15-nation council. With Gaddafi forces making growing inroads into rebel-held territory in Libya, Britain’s ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said: “What we want to do is move as fast as possible and we will be stressing the urgency of the need for action this morning.” A two-part resolution was presented to the Security Council Tuesday. One half of the resolution calls for a no-fly zone, the second lays out a toughening of existing sanctions against the Gaddafi regime, targeting new individuals and entities with an asset freeze and travel ban, diplomats said.

China, Russia and Germany have opposed military action and India, South Africa and other members of the council have strong doubts. Lyall Grant said Britain and France want a quick vote “but obviously we are not going to put a resolution to a vote that is not going to get the requisite number of votes in order to pass.” He said there would be an indication on Wednesday of whether the move would succeed. “If we are able to move to the vote today then obviously we would be delighted with that. If it means that people have to go back to capitals and get further instructions overnight and we are voting tomorrow, well that’s not the end of the world,” the British envoy told reporters. US senators calling for a no-fly zone over Libya warned Wednesday that Washington would pay a steep price for leaving strongman Muammar Gaddafi in power and pleaded for aid to beleaguered rebels.

“Gaddafi will be vengeful. And we’re not through with him, and I think we had a chance here to be through with him,” said independent Senator Joe Lieberman, who underlined: “I think we’ll pay for it.”
“The situation is getting more critical, the consequences of Gaddafi coming back to power are far-reaching and long-lasting — all of the consequences in my view being bad,” said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. Graham noted that US President Barack Obama, when he was a senator, often tied the Iraq war to his predecessor, George W. Bush, and said the same thing would happen with Libya.
“I think history’s going to say that the Obama administration owns the Gaddafi regime. And everything that flows thereafter if he comes back to power, they’re going to own,” Graham said.

Graham said Iran would get “the wrong message” from Washington’s failure to stop a regime trying to “murder its own people” and warned that the Libya standoff could shape the West’s effort to curb Tehran’s suspect nuclear program. “I think the chance of Iran being deterred in the future from pursuing their nuclear ambitions grows exponentially lower if Gaddafi is able to survive the challenges from the West,” he said. “The noose is not tightening on Gaddafi, apparently, it’s tightening on his own people, and we seem to not be able to make a decision,” said Graham. Their comments came as Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry held a closed-door classified briefing for members of his panel on the situation in Libya. Kerry declined to comment after the session.

Yemen
One person was killed and 200 wounded when Yemen security forces attacked protesters in the Red Sea city of Hudaida with live and rubber bullets, tear gas, clubs and daggers, a doctor who treated victims said. The impoverished Arabian Peninsula state has been hit by weeks of protests against the 32-year rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Both pro and anti-government factions appear to have increasingly resorted to violence in the struggle. A doctor treating protesters in Hudaida said hundreds of security forces and plainclothes police had attacked a sit-in. “We received around 200 wounded, 10 were hit by gunfire and 40 suffered stab wounds. One died from his gunshot wounds after reaching the hospital,” he said. Demonstrators contacted by Reuters said they were calling on private hospitals to send ambulances and asked Yemenis to donate blood to help treat the wounded. The city’s main hospital had been filled to capacity, they said.

Shouting over the rising clamour and chanting of protesters who regrouped after the attack, one demonstrator told Reuters by phone that security forces, most in civilian clothes, had surrounded the sit-in but later retreated. “The thugs have left, the wounded are getting treatment and our sit-in continues,” Abdulhafid al-Nihari said. Two protesters told Reuters some of the wounded demonstrators had been chased down by security forces and then beaten in the hospital, but this could not be verified.
The United States, which has long seen Saleh as a bulwark against an aggressive al-Qaeda wing based in Yemen, has condemned the bloodshed and backed the right to peaceful protest. It says only dialogue can end the crisis. Protesters, frustrated by rampant corruption and soaring unemployment, have been increasingly strident in their demand that Saleh step down. Some 40 percent of Yemen’s 23 million people live on $2 a day or less and a third face chronic hunger.

As widespread protests continue despite rising violence and Saleh’s promises of reform, Yemen delayed a meeting with a group of Western and Gulf Arab donors, known as “Friends of Yemen”, in Riyadh later this month, state news agency Saba said. “Yemen proposed delaying the group’s coming meeting to give a chance for more preparation and coordination and will announce a new date soon,” Saba said.

Oman
Private security guards in Oman blocked the main airport in the Gulf Arab state on Wednesday in a demonstration to demand higher pay, witnesses said.
A string of concessions by veteran ruler Sultan Qaboos bin Said have failed to halt a wave of unrest as protesters, inspired by demonstrations elsewhere in the Arab world, press political and labour demands. Between 400 and 500 security guards, who are employed by private companies, protested on the Muscat airport road.
“Our objective of this protest is for our wages to be raised,” said one protester, who declined to be identified.
Police asked the protesters to disperse but there were no reports of violence.
Some travellers said they had missed their flights. “I was due to fly to Mumbai this morning but due to roadblocks I missed the flight,” Raj Mehta said.

Activists have held sit-ins for weeks in front of the consultative Shura Council in Muscat, outside the governor’s office in Salalah in the far south and in Sohar. They want better wages, more jobs, an elected parliament and a new constitution.
Qaboos, in power for 40 years, decided this week to cede some legislative powers to the partly elected Oman Council, an advisory body. At present, only the sultan and his cabinet can pass laws.
The government also said it would double monthly welfare payments and increase pension benefits, making Oman the latest Gulf state to offer cash incentives to stop citizens’ protests inspired by those in Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
On Tuesday several hundred workers at the state oil firm, Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), demonstrated for higher wages at company headquarters and oil and gas fields, the first such stoppage at a Gulf energy firm since unrest swept the region.

Staff are also protesting outside firms including Oman International Bank, Oman Investment Finance Company and the government-owned Intercontinental hotel, where some guests were turned away.
This week protesters also demanded that the new police chief investigate sacked ministers for alleged corruption. Qaboos has fired 12 ministers since the protests against his rule began.
Last week, wealthy Gulf Arab oil producers launched a $20 billion aid package for their less prosperous neighbours Oman and Bahrain — a job-generating measure that should enable the two countries to upgrade their housing and infrastructure.
The ruling Gulf Arab dynasties, who have long been backed by Washington, hope the aid will help stave off demands for democratic reform by citizens looking at the dramatic changes brought about by people power elsewhere in the Arab world.

Algeria
Police in the Algerian capital used tear gas on Wednesday to disperse a crowd of young men who were throwing petrol bombs and stones, a Reuters reporter said.
The protesters, who had blocked a road in the east of the capital, said they had no political demands but wanted the authorities to give them better housing.
“We live like dogs. We live in one apartment with the whole family and we have been here since the 1960s,” one young protester told Reuters.

Rioting sparked by anger over living conditions is not uncommon in Algeria, but the authorities are especially wary of any signs of unrest now after protests in Tunisia and Egypt toppled long-standing rulers. Unrest in Algeria, one of Europe’s biggest suppliers of natural gas, has so far has been localised and attempts by opposition groups to create a nationwise protest movement have lost momentum. Wednesday’s protest began when about 60 young men, most of them from the working class Diar el Mahsoul neighbourhood, blocked a road and demanded a meeting with senior officials about their living conditions. Their numbers swelled to about 150 and some began throwing stones and petrol bombs at police. Police, who numbered about 300, responded with tear gas, but it failed to disperse the crowd who continued rioting.

Syria
Security forces wielding batons dispersed 150 demonstrators who had gathered in central of Damascus on Wednesday in the most serious protest against Syria’s ruling hierarchy since revolts spread in the Arab world. Scores of plainclothes security officers charged the demonstrators assembled outside the Interior Ministry to demand the release of political prisoners, a Reuters witness said. One demonstrator suffered a gash on his head, others were beaten and at least 15 were detained, including leading political activist Suhair al-Attasi. Attasi had said Syrian authorities would not be able to escape the tumult shaking the Arab world by refusing to open the country’s political system and allowing free expression. “They pulled Suhair by her hair and took her away,” one demonstrator said. Among those arrested were Tayyib Tizini, 69, a professor of philosophy at Damascus University, and the sister and son of Kamal Labwani, a doctor jailed for “weakening national morale” and “inciting a foreign country to invade Syria”.

The gathering in Marjeh square, an Ottoman-era square in the centre of the capital, had been silent, with protesters raising pictures of imprisoned relatives and friends, before security forces started hitting them with their batons. One of the demonstrators carried a picture of Mohannad al-Hassani, a lawyer who won an international human rights prize last May for representing political prisoners. He was sentenced a month later to three years in jail. “This is chaos,” a security officer shouted at protesters. “No this is a peaceful protest,” a demonstrator answered. The protesters dispersed after the attack, and security forces continued arresting more people, shoving them into a bus and a darkened van. An interior ministry official said “infiltrators” had tried to stir chaos in front of the ministry. A brief counter-demonstration then started, with people chanting: “With our soul, with our blood, we shall sacrifice for Bashar,” in reference to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.