MISRATA, Libya — The top governing committee in this besieged western city said Tuesday that it had made an official request for foreign troops on the ground to stop the killing of civilians by Moammar Gadhafi’s forces.
The request, which a member of Misrata’s Judicial Committee said was sent last week, marks the first time ground troops have been formally sought in Libya as a humanitarian crisis looms in the strategic port city after a nearly two-month siege.
Food, water and gas are running out in Misrata as Gadhafi’s troops pummel power stations, water tanks, food-storage units and other key infrastructure with rockets, mortar and artillery fire. An untrained and outgunned rebel force has been unable to halt shelling and sniper fire in residential neighborhoods. The city’s only opening to the outside world, the port, is under constant attack, routinely preventing access to it from land or sea.
“We need a force from NATO or the United Nations on the ground now,” committee member Nouri Abdullah Abdulati told reporters Tuesday.
Abdulati said the Judicial Committee’s signed request had been sent to the Transitional National Council in Benghazi, the de facto capital of the opposition-controlled east, but no reply had been received. The council, the only link between Misrata and NATO commanders, has said it does not want foreign troops in Libya.
“We did not accept any foreign soldiers on our land. But that was before we faced the crimes of Gadhafi,” Abdulati said Tuesday. “We are asking on the basis of humanitarian and Islamic principles for someone to come and stop the killing. The whole Arab world is calling for the intervention of the West for the first time in history.”
More than 300 people have been killed in the city of 500,000, said Khaled Abu Falgha, the head of the medical committee based at Hikma Hospital. But he said the number is probably closer to 1,000 because many people bury their own dead.
Abdulati said the committee would want British or French troops to fight alongside rebels in the city, both to protect civilians and to fight off Gadhafi’s forces.
“It’s a situation of life or death,” he said. “If they don’t come, we will die.”
Britain said Tuesday that it is sending up to 20 military advisers to help Libya’s rebel force, even as NATO acknowledges that airstrikes alone cannot stop the daily shelling of Misrata.
The plight of Misrata’s civilians and the battlefield deadlock are raising new questions about the international community’s strategy in Libya. The leaders of the U.S., Britain and France have said Gadhafi must go but seem unwilling to commit to a more forceful military campaign. NATO’s mandate is restricted to protecting civilians.
Adm. Giampaolo Di Paola, chairman of NATO’s military committee, said that even though the military alliance’s operations have done “quite significant damage” to the Libyan regime’s heavy weaponry, what Gadhafi has left is “still considerable.” Asked if more airpower is needed, Di Paola said any “significantly additional” allied contribution would be welcome.
Frustration over the stalemate has spurred talk in the West of new tactics, including dispatching military personnel to Libya.
Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim said Britain’s attempt to help the rebels is futile.
“This is not in the interest of the U.K.,” Kaim said. “This is an impossible mission. To organize who? They (the rebels) are different groups. There is no leader. They are not well-organized, and I am sure it will be a failure.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
