Tin mới:

– Chính quyền Gadaffi tuyên bố ngưng chiến, nhưng chiến cuộc vẫn đang xảy ra tại các tỉnh Mistrata, Ajdabiya và Zintan.

– Obama yêu cầu Gadaffi ngưng chiến và rút quân khỏi các tỉnh đang bị vây, nhưng nói là quân Mỹ sẽ không tham chiến.

– Bộ trưởng ngoại giao Hillary Chinton nói “Chúng tôi sẽ tiếp tục làm việc ới công đồng quốc tế để yêu cầu Gadaffi rút lui và tuân thủ ý muốn của nhân dân Libya”.

– Tổng thư ký LHQ Ban Ki-moon nói “Gadaffi phải ngưng tất cả mọi họa động đối nghịch với thường dân”.

– Pháp dự tính sẽ cố gắng “nhanh chóng”. Tổng thống Sarkozy sẽ họp ngày mai (thứ bảy) với thành viên của Liên Hiệp Các Nước A-rập, Chủ tịch Liên Minh Âu Châu, và đại diện các quốc gia ủng hộ sự chấp hành quyết nghị của Liên Hợp Quốc về Libya.

– Thủ tướng Anh David Cameron nói Anh quốc đã bắt đầu chuẩn bị chiến đấu cơ và “trong những giờ sắp tới” sẽ chuyển các phi cơ này đến các căn cứ không quân để chuẩn bị cho bất kì “hành động cần thiết” nào.

– Tây Ban Nha (Spain) sẽ cho NATO mượn hai căn cứ quân sự, và sẽ sư dụng không quân và hải quân vào chiến trận ở Libya.

– Ý đóng của Sứ quán tại Libya và sẽ tích cực ủng hộ chiến trận.

– Bộ trưởng quốc phòng Mỹ Robert Gates sẽ sang Nga ngày thứ bảy để bàn việc Libya.

_ Canada gởi các chiến đấu cơ phản lực CF-18 đến các tàu chiến Canada đang chuẩn bị ngoài bở biển Libya.

Opposition: Violence rages despite Libyan claim of cease-fire

By the CNN Wire Staff

March 18, 2011 3:18 p.m. EDT

Libya opposition: Civilian areas shelled

(CNN) — Deadly conflict is raging in Libya, witnesses say, despite the government announcement of an “immediate” cease-fire after a U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing the use of force to protect civilians.

At least 28 people died and hundreds were wounded as fighting raged in the Libyan cities of Mistrata, Ajdabiya and Zintan on Friday, according to Khaled el-Sayeh, military spokesman for the opposition.

U.S. President Barack Obama warned Gadhafi to adhere to the cease-fire and pull back from several besieged cities. But Obama insisted that American troops will not be deployed in Libya.

Witnesses in the western city of Misrata said a pro-government assault is persisting and casualties are mounting as countries backing the council’s move, such as Britain and France, get their military resources into place to enforce the measure.

“What cease-fire?” asked a doctor in Misrata, who described hours of military poundings, casualties and dwindling resources to treat the wounded. “We’re under the bombs.

Libya declares immediate cease-fire

Libya reacts to no-fly zone

Libyan rebels celebrate vote

Breaking down a no-fly zone over Libya

Libyan amb. still hopeful for airstrikes

“This morning, they are burning the city,” the doctor said. “There are deaths everywhere.”

“Misrata is on fire,” according to an opposition member, who said tanks and vehicles with heavy artillery shot their way into the city Thursday night and the assault continued Friday. He said leader Moammar Gadhafi’s regime announced a cease-fire to buy time for itself. “Please help us.”

Outside Ajdabiya in eastern Libya, CNN’s Arwa Damon said she heard explosions, listened to fighters’ accounts of heavy casualties and saw ambulances. She said fighters, who don’t trust Gadhafi, believe that the declaration is a trick.

“Everybody around us is on very high alert, still expecting the worst,” Damon said.

El-Sayeh said 26 people died in Mistrata, 83 were seriously wounded and hundreds were slightly wounded. In Ajdabiya, two died, three were seriously wounded and hundreds were slightly wounded. There was no immediate casualty count for Zintan, el-Sayeh said.

CNN couldn’t independently confirm the witness accounts, and it is impossible to tell whether word of the cease-fire declaration trickled down to pro-government forces. The announcement, which came hours after the U.N. Security Council authorized the use of force to protect besieged civilians, drew quick skepticism from France and the United States, among others.

In remarks televised around the globe, Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa said in Tripoli that the country decided on “an immediate cease-fire and the stoppage of all military operations.” He noted that the country, since it is a member of the United Nations, is “obliged to accept the Security Council resolution that permits the use of force to protect the civilian population.”

Obama said Friday that “left unchecked, we have every reason to believe Gadhafi (will) commit atrocities against his own people” and the surrounding region could be destabilized.

Power and water must be restored to several cities, he added.

“These terms are not negotiable,” Obama said. If Gadhafi doesn’t comply, the U.N. resolution will be imposed through military action, the president said.

It was not immediately clear how the announced cease-fire and word of continued fighting will affect plans of some countries to intervene militarily in Libya; authorities in Britain and France had talked before Koussa’s remarks.

Koussa said that Libya plans to protect civilians and provide them with humanitarian assistance and that it is obliged to protect all foreigners and their assets. He also called for a fact-finding mission to sort out the events on the ground.

He said the Libya government was disappointed in the imposition of a no-fly zone, arguing that it will hurt the civilian population. He also said the use of military power would violate the country’s sovereignty and go against the U.N. charter, but he acknowledged that some countries may yet intervene.

“There are signs this indeed might take place,” Koussa said.

Bernard Valero, a French Foreign Ministry spokesman, said the cease-fire announcement “does not change the threat on the ground.”

Frustration and anger in Benghazi

Libyan rebel: We’ve seen heavy gunfire

No-fly zone a slippery slope to more?

Libya ‘welcomes’ U.N. resolution

“Gadhafi is privy to folkloric declarations, and we must remain extremely vigilant with regards to these declarations,” he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who called the situation “fluid and dynamic,” said the United States wants actions, not words. “We will continue to work with our partners in the international community to press Gadhafi to leave and to support the legitimate aspirations of the Libyan people,” she said.

The Libyan government “must immediately cease all hostilities against the civilian population,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Friday in Madrid.

Earlier Friday, talk emerged in Europe of speedy military action against Gadhafi’s regime.

In an interview with RTL radio, French government spokesman Francois Baroin said France plans to participate in “swift” efforts. President Nicolas Sarkozy will convene a summit Saturday to look at the crisis. Invited are members of the Arab League, the president of the European Council and representatives of states that support the implementation of the U.N. resolution.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said the United Kingdom has started preparations to deploy aircraft, and “in the coming hours” they will move to air bases where they will be positioned for any “necessary action.”

Spain will offer NATO the use of two military bases and provide air and naval forces for use in operations involving Libya, Spanish Defense Minister Carme Chacon said Friday in Madrid, a Defense Ministry spokesman said.

The two bases to be offered in southern Spain are the Rota air and naval station, where a contingent of U.S. troops is also based, and the air base at Moron de la Frontera. Those, as well as the offer to provide air and naval assets, would be subject to parliamentary approval, the minister said at an event at a Spanish air base in Madrid, the spokesman said.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said it is closing the Italian Embassy in Tripoli and will actively participate in the effort.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Canada is sending CF-18 fighter jets to join a Canadian warship on standby off the coast of Libya.

The Pentagon, meanwhile, announced Friday that Defense Secretary Robert Gates will travel to Russia this weekend as the United States and other nations deliberate action against Libya.

“There is no consideration being given to delaying this trip,” spokesman Geoff Morrell said at the Pentagon. He said Gates maintains constant communications links with Washington wherever he goes and can “carry out his responsibilities no matter where he is in the world.”

Asked whether the cease-fire declaration complicates a U.N.-sanctioned intervention, Michael Rubin, a Middle East expert at the American Enterprise Institute, said, “It is going to make it tougher without a doubt.”

“One should credit Obama for getting the international community behind him, but it came at the price of momentum. The Libyans understand European weakness and know how to play off of it,” Rubin said.

Rubin said migration concerns come into play, with Europeans worried that more violence will generate more refugees.

“They look at change in North Africa almost exclusively through the lens of migration,” he said.

The council voted 10-0 with five abstentions Thursday night to authorize “states to take all necessary measures to protect civilians.” It also imposed a no-fly zone, banning all flights in Libyan airspace, with exceptions that involve humanitarian aid and evacuation of foreign nationals.

The United States and its NATO partners have several contingencies in place to act quickly, according to an administration official familiar with planning. They include airstrikes and cruise missile attacks designed to cripple Libyan air defenses and punish the military units that are leading Gadhafi’s push on opposition strongholds in the east, the official said.

Obama will insist on a major Arab role in any no-fly zone, the official said.

All commercial air traffic has been shut down in Libya, an official at Eurocontrol said Friday.

The opposition, with devoted but largely untrained and under-equipped units, has suffered military setbacks this week. But their hopes were buoyed by the U.N. vote, particularly in rebel-held Benghazi, where an assault by pro-Gadhafi forces has been expected.

The resolution singles out the city. It says U.N. member states can “take all necessary measures … to protect civilians and civilian populated areas under threat of attack in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, including Benghazi, while excluding a foreign occupation force. “The Libyan Arab Jamahiriya” is a formal name for the nation.

The U.N. resolution details enforcement of an arms embargo against Libya, the freezing of assets and a ban on most flights.

Trưa thứ Sáu 18/3, Ngoại trưởng Libya Mussa Kussa tuyên bố các lực lượng Libya ‘ngưng bắn’

Chưa đầy 24 giờ sau khi Hội đồng Bảo an Liên Hiệp Quốc ra nghị quyết về vùng cấm bay tại Libya, chính phủ ở Tripoli bất ngờ tuyên bố ‘ngưng bắn lập tức’ và mời phái đoàn quốc tế vào ‘tìm hiểu thực tế’.

Bộ Ngoại giao Libya, lúc gần 13 giờ trưa theo giờ London, cũng nói họ tuân thủ nghị quyết LHQ để ‘bảo vệ thường dân’.

Tuy nhiên, hiện chưa rõ đây có phải là cách để Tripoli kéo dài thời gian trước các diễn biến dồn dập trên trường quốc tế từ tối 17/3.

Anh và Pháp vừa tuyên bố họ sẽ chỉ xem xét các hành động của ông Gaddafi chứ không tin vào lời nói của ông ta trong chuyện tuyên bố ngưng bắn của Libya.

Ngoại trưởng Mussa Kussa của Libya nói lúc 12 giờ 38 rằng nước ông “ngưng mọi hoạt động chiến sự”.

Nhưng ngay sau đó, tin tức từ Misrata vẫn nói chiến sự giữa phe Gaddafi và phiến quân không hề dừng lại.

Trước đó, chính quyền của Đại tá Gaddafi từng tuyên bố chiến đấu tới cùng và sẵn sàng tiêu diệt phiến quân mà họ gọi là “theo Al Qaeda”.

Chưa có vẻ rằng Hoa Kỳ và các đồng minh châu Âu ngưng chiến dịch không quân nhắm vào Libya.

Ngoại trưởng Thuỵ Điển, Carl Bildt cho hay rằng “Mọi việc đang diễn ra chậm nhưng đúng hướng. Ngăn chặn Gaddafi mới chỉ là bước đầu. Xây dựng nước Libya mới sẽ là thách thức thực sự”.

Sau khi có tin về ‘lệnh ngưng bắn’, liên minh quân sự Nato vẫn tuyên bố các nước trong khối “đồng ý lên kế hoạch về khả năng có chiến dịch quân sự ở Libya nhưng chưa quyết định có can thiệp vào cuộc xung đột hay không”.

Được biết Anh Quốc và Hoa Kỳ cùng Pháp đã sẵn sàng điều không quân vào Libya kiểm soát vùng cấm bay.

Trước đó, Liên đoàn Ả Rập cho hay Tổng thư ký Liên Hiệp Quốc, Ban Ki-moon sẽ họp cùng họ, và cả Liên Hiệp châu Âu và Liên Hiệp châu Phi vào thứ Bảy 19/3 tại Paris để bàn về tình hình Libya.