ROME—
In the wake of a plea for help from besieged rebels in the Libyan city of Misurata, three Western powers have announced that they will send military advisors and one said Wednesday that it would step up airstrikes against Moammar Kadafi's military.Italian Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa said 10 military instructors would be sent and details were being worked out. He spoke Wednesday after meeting with his British counterpart, Liam Fox.
France and Britain had announced earlier that they would send military officers to Libya to help rebel forces organize and bolster the NATO air campaign that has failed to rout Kadafi's military.
La Russa again ruled out that Italy would send ground troops, reinforcements that the rebels strongly desire.
In Paris, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Wednesday that France would intensify its airstrikes at the request of opposition forces.
Libyan rebel chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil met with Sarkozy as Western powers struggle to break a deadlock in the two-month conflict. He had been expected to ask for an increase in NATO airstrikes but also might name officials in Tripoli whom the opposition would be willing to deal with if Kadafi stepped down, a source close to the opposition said.
After the Paris meeting, a presidential aide quoted Sarkozy as saying: "We will intensify the strikes." The aide was not authorized to be publicly named according to presidential policy.
France's Foreign Ministry also said Wednesday it already has military liaison officers on the ground in the rebel-held city of Benghazi. No number was given. Britain announced Tuesday that it was sending up to 20 military advisers to help Libya's rebel forces. France and Britain led the push for international intervention in Libya.
France insisted Wednesday that it is not ready to send ground troops, but said the U.N. Security Council should consider it.
Libyan Foreign Minister Abdul Ati al Obeidi also hinted that Kadai's future might be up for negotiation, something the government side has hitherto refused to countenance, and said elections could be held if Western airstrikes stopped.
"If the bombing stopped, al Obeidi said, after six months the could be an election supervised by the U.N.," BBC radio reported.
If the Anglo-French had not pressured America to bomb yet another Muslim nation into “democracy” the tribal uprising in East Libya would by now have fizzled out. The much vaunted threat of “unspeakable carnage” in Benghazi is pure hyperbole because the Islamist rebels would have melted away over the Egyptian border. With Blair’s ghost haunting this feast of foolishness, David Cameron is being pressured to obtain an explicit UN mandate rather than allowing mission creep to continue. Yet the Arab League and African Union are clearly unhappy that the UN sanction was used by the West to lob missiles willy-nilly into Libya and shoot the place up. I am sure China and Russia will veto military invasion and decry the flooding of Libya with guns but not obtaining a fresh UN mandate will make this war as illegal as Iraq.