The medical aid group Doctors Without Borders

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) March 16, 2011 -- The medical aid group Doctors Without Borders said yesterday that it is withdrawing its staff from Benghazi because it was “effectively impossible for medical teams to safely travel” to where they are needed, according to an e-mailed statement from press officer Emily Linendoll. The group dropped preparations to set up a small operating theater in Brega after government forces advanced through the town.

In Benghazi, rebel spokesman Mustafa Gheriani said dozens were killed and hundreds wounded in air strikes on Zwara. Qaddafi’s bombardment of such towns doesn’t necessarily mean that government ground forces control them, he said.
Rebel Claims
Rebels said they used aircraft to hit a government convoy heading toward Ajdabiya, capturing five tanks and their crewmembers, and outfitted fishing boats with machine guns to attack some government vessels that had fired on the city, according to rebel commander Omar.
U.S. President Barack Obama met yesterday with his national security team to discuss ways to increase pressure on Qaddafi’s regime, spokesman Jay Carney said. The administration has been wary of a no-fly zone, a measure that won Arab League backing.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met March 14 in Paris with Libyan opposition officials who requested military help, including the bombing of three of Qaddafi’s airfields, U.S. officials said. She spoke privately with Mahmood Jibril, the foreign affairs representative of the Libyan Interim Transitional National Council, who also asked for military equipment as well as political and economic aid.
Qaddafi, in his late-night television address, said the U.S., U.K., France and Libya’s former colonial power Italy are after the country’s oil. He said only 150 to 200 people have been killed in the unrest, many of them policemen, he said. He said the U.S. and France failed to remember the lessons of Vietnam, and he threatened to attack France.
Arab League Request

The U.K and Lebanon, acting on behalf of the Arab League, presented a draft UN Security Council resolution yesterday that demands an immediate end of attack on civilians in Libya and steps to meet the “legitimate demands” of citizens. It calls for intercepting ships or flights that may carry weapons or mercenaries for the regime, bans most Libyan commercial flights, and authorizes a no-fly zone.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that even though the Arab League has requested a no-fly zone, the UN would have to reconcile such a measure with its objection to foreign intervention. Russia has veto power in the UN Security Council.
G-8 leaders pushing for a no-fly zone including French President Nicolas Sarkozy and U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron won support from the Arab League, which called on March 12 for an aerial blockade to cripple Qaddafi’s advance. The G-8 is comprised of Britain, Canada, France, Germany Italy, Japan, Russia, and the U.S.

“While not every nation sees eye-to-eye on the no-fly zone, there is a common appetite to increase pressure on the Qaddafi regime,” U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague told reporters yesterday after the G8 meeting.
Talk, Not Action
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini raised objections to a military intervention, adding that a no-fly zone would be insufficient to halt the violence.
“Tanks move faster than debates in the UN Security Council, but we don’t want to respond to violence in the same way,” Frattini said. “A no-fly zone alone would not be enough; in and of itself it would not be a guarantee to stopping violence. What we need is a range, a package of measures.”

NATO defense ministers last week balked at a no-fly zone, saying the military alliance lacked the authority for such a measure without a UN mandate. The alliance instead deployed ships closer to the Libyan coast and increased aerial surveillance of the country to 24 hours a day.
The turn against the rebels reflected further setbacks for Arab populations in the Middle East seeking changes in their governments. Saudi Arabian troops moved into Bahrain to quell unrest following a month of protests by mainly Shiite demonstrators calling for free elections. More than 100 military vehicles have crossed into Bahrain, al-Jazeera reported.

Police opened fire on protesters in the village of Sitra, the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights said in a statement. Ali Al-Akri, a doctor at the emergency room of the Salmaniya Medical Complex, said at least two people have been killed in clashes yesterday and 250 others were hurt.
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