LIBYA: Loyalists’ continued resistance surprises NATO.
NATO expressed surprise Tuesday at the determined resistance by forces defending Moammar Gadhafi’s hometown. The comments by Col. Roland Lavoie appeared aimed at pressuring the former strongman’s troops to lay down their weapons and engage in talks with the one-time rebels who now rule the country.
Instead, in places such as Sirte, Gadhafi loyalists are still fighting, even though they can no longer be resupplied after the new government’s units won control of key parts of the town’s center, Lavoie said.
Explosions and gunfire echoed through Sirte on Tuesday as revolutionary forces said they had the enemy pinned in a small area and had captured more than 20 members of Gadhafi’s tribe trying to escape.
Lavoie also said NATO has no information about the thousands of portable surface-to-air missiles that are reportedly missing in Libya.
SYRIA: Government steps up offensives.
Heavy fighting was reported Tuesday as security forces mounted an offensive in the flashpoint city of Homs, where activists said seven people were killed.
The government said “armed terrorist gangs” had staged attacks on a police station, hospital and roadway, and tried to assassinate the head of the hospital’s emergency room. Authorities confiscated heavy weapons and explosives and arrested more than 100 people, according to SANA, the official government news agency.
Activists said attacks by government security forces in Homs and surrounding areas have escalated.
UNITED STATES: Arab nations’ transition difficult, Clinton says.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the Arab Spring has entered the difficult and uncharted territory between dictatorship and democracy. She said it may take time for the U.S. to help pressure longtime leaders out of power in Syria and Yemen and to ensure chaos is averted in Egypt.
In an interview Tuesday, Clinton said foes of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime had “a lot of work” left to becoming a truly national opposition movement. And she said Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s refusal to give up power is making that country’s situation difficult.
Denver Post wire services
