By AFP
Brussels And Tripoli
Al Arabiya, , 02 July 2011 – NATO has stepped up raids across western Libya in recent days, destroying 50 military targets to counter the build-up of Muammar Qaddafi’s forces near key cities, the alliance said Saturday.
Round-the-clock operations have focused since Monday on a region that stretches from the Nafusa mountains near the Tunisian border to the western city of Misrata.
“We are engaging all military assets that are being used to indiscriminately target the civilian population throughout Libya,” said Lt Gen. Charles Bouchard, commander of NATO operations in Libya.
“NATO continues to increase the pressure on the Qaddafi regime and to protect civilians, wherever they are under threat of attack,” he said.
The strikes have been carried out “in response to pro-Qaddafi forces massing in key urban areas and on major lines of communication” an alliance statement said.
“This buildup poses a real threat to more than 1.8 million civilians living in the cities of Nalut, Tripoli, Gharyan, Al Khums and Misrata,” it said.
In the past four days in Gharyan, 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Tripoli, NATO aircraft struck eight targets including a military complex used to resupply Qaddafi troops, tanks and other military vehicles, the alliance said.
Another air raid struck an underground network of tunnels used to hide military equipment in mountainous terrain near Wadi Turghut, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) southeast of the capital.
On Saturday, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton demanded that Colonel Qaddafi deliver democracy instead of threats after the Libyan leader warned Europe of stinging attacks unless NATO halts its air war.
“Instead of issuing threats, Mr. Qaddafi should put the well-being and interests of his own people first and he should step down from power and help facilitate a democratic transition,” Mrs. Clinton said on a visit to NATO ally Spain, the latest leg of a European tour.
In a speech broadcast by loudspeaker to thousands of loyalists gathered in Tripoli’s emblematic Green Square on Friday, the Libyan leader had warned that his loyalists could launch stinging attacks on Europe like “locusts and bees.”
“The Libyan people are capable, one day, of taking the battle to Europe and the Mediterranean,” Colonel Qaddafi said.
“They could attack your homes, your offices, your families could become legitimate military targets because you have transformed our offices, headquarters, homes and children into military targets which you say are legitimate,” Mr. Qaddafi said.
“If we decide to do so, we are capable of throwing ourselves on Europe like swarms of locusts or bees.”
Spanish Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez was asked at a news conference with Secretary Clinton about Qaddafi’s threat and vowed that NATO would keep up the pressure on the Libyan leader.