NBC, msnbc.com and news services
updated 3/3/2011 12:46:39 AM ET 2011-03-03T05:46:39

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and the president of the Arab League agreed to a peace plan from Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez to end the crisis in the North African country, a news network said on Thursday.

Chavez spoke to Gadhafi on Tuesday and laid out his proposal to seek a negotiated solution to the violence in Libya, Venezuela's Information Minister Andres Izarra said, without giving more details.

A senior government official contacted by Reuters said he did not know what Gadhafi had said about Chavez's idea to send representatives from several countries to Libya.

However, news network Al Jazeera said in a broadcast that during the call Gadhafi had accepted the plan, which would involve a commission from Latin America, Europe and the Middle East trying to reach a negotiated outcome between the Libyan leader and rebel forces.

Citing senior government sources, Al Jazeera's Caracas Correspondent Dima Khatib said via her Twitter feed that Venezuela's foreign minister had spoken with Arab League President Amr Moussa, who also agreed to the plan.

Earlier in the day Moussa took a tough line on Libya, saying the Arab League could impose a "no-fly zone" there to stop blood being spilled.

Chavez said the international community should seek a non-military solution to the conflict and accused the United States of exaggerating Libya's problems to justify an invasion.

A former soldier who survived massive protests and a coup against him in 2002, Chavez is a close friend of Gaddafi and has visited him several times.

Despite the report, oil prices held near 2-year highs on Thursday due to fears unrest could spread to other OPEC producers.

U.S. crude rose 0.2 percent to $102.47 a barrel, not far from the recent peak at $103.41, while Brent crude was also 0.2 percent higher at $116.63, closing in on the Feb. 24 high near $120.

Troops routed in attack
Reports of the offer's acceptance came a day after r

ebel forces routed troops loyal to Gadhafi in a fierce, topsy-turvy battle over an oil port, scrambling over the dunes of a Mediterranean beach through shelling and an airstrike to corner their attackers. The daylong fighting blunted the regime's first counteroffensive against opposition-held eastern Libya.

At least 10 anti-Gadhafi fighters were killed and 18 wounded in the battle over Brega, Libya's second largest petroleum facility, which the opposition has held since last week. Citizen militias flowed in from a nearby city and from the opposition stronghold of Benghazi hours away to reinforce the defense, finally repelling the regime loyalists.

Image: Burned out pro-Gadhafi vehicle in Brega
Hussein Malla  /  AP
Anti-Gadhafi forces take back an area in Brega, Libya, on Wednesday.

In Tripoli Wednesday, Gadhafi vowed that "we will fight until the last man and woman." In a long, rambling speech he also warned that thousands of Libyans would die if U.S. and NATO forces intervened.

"We will not accept an intervention like that of the Italians that lasted decades," Gadhafi said, referring to Italy's colonial rule early in the 20th Century. "This will lead to a bloody war and thousands of Libyans will die if America and NATO enter Libya."


But by afternoon, they had lost it all and had retreated to a university campus 5 miles away.


"The dogs have fled," one middle-aged fighter shouted, waving his Kalashnikov over his head in victory after the Gadhafi forces withdrew from the town before nightfall. Cars honked their horns and many people fired assault rifles in the air in celebration.

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In other developments Wednesday:

  • Rebels ask for foreign airstrikes. In Benghazi, Libya's second largest city and the stronghold of the rebellion in the east, a self-declared "interim government council" formed by the opposition called on foreign nations to carry out airstrikes on non-Libyan African mercenaries that Gadhafi has used in his militias to put down the uprising. Council spokesman Abdel-Hafiz Hoga said the council urged airstrikes on the "strongholds of the mercenaries .... used against civilians and people." The council was announced by opposition leaders headed by Gadhafi's former justice minister, Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, who joined the uprising.
  • Arrests in Tripoli. Pro-Gadhafi militiamen launched a wave of raids in Tripoli to snatch people who participated in anti-government protests over the past week after identifying them in photos and video, several witnesses said. Dozens were arrested at their homes in dawn raids in the restive neighborhood of Tajoura, said one resident, whose two brothers were among those taken. "Seventeen cars with armed militia in uniform, they stormed the houses of my brothers. They blew the locks off the doors, they took the jewelry of my sister-in-law, money and my brothers," the resident said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
  • Immigrants airlifted out. The turmoil has also sparked a massive exodus of 180,000 people — mostly foreign workers — who have fled to the borders, U.N. refugee agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said. European nations and Egypt launched emergency airlifts and sent ships to handle the chaotic flight. More than 77,000 so far have crossed into Egypt, and a similar number into Tunisia — with about 30,000 more waiting at that western border. Some Somali and Eritreans workers around Benghazi are feeling "hunted" as they are being mistaken for mercenaries hired by Gadhafi, she said, while Gadhafi forces appear to be targeting Egyptians and Tunisians, apparently believing they triggered the uprising. "(There are) many, many terrified refugees" in Tripoli who are too afraid to move for fear they will be killed, Fleming told AP.
  • U.S. warships near. Two U.S. amphibious assault ships, the USS Kearsarge, which can carry 2,000 Marines, and the USS Ponce entered the Suez Canal en route to the Mediterranean. The destroyer USS Barry moved through the canal on Monday as part of efforts to increase diplomatic and military pressure on Gadhafi to quit.



Gadhafi's regime has been left in control of Libya's northwest corner, centered on Tripoli, but even there several cities have fallen into rebel hands after residents rose up in protests, backed by mutinous army units and drove out Gadhafi loyalists.

In recent days, loyalists succeeded in regaining two of those towns — Gharyan, a strategic town in the Nafusa mountains south of Tripoli, and Sabratha, a small town west of the capital.


  • The key city of Zawiya outside the capital;
  • Misrata, Libya's third largest city east of Tripoli; and
  • Zintan, a town further southwest in the Nafusa mountains.


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In his speech Wednesday, Gadhafi lashed out at international moves against his regime, including the freezing of his and other Libyan assets abroad — an act he called "piracy" — and efforts by Europe to send aid to opposition-held Benghazi.

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Gadhafi insisted he was not in charge and so there was no president to be ousted by the revolt, as happened in neighboring Tunisia and Egypt. He claimed the country was run by people's committees.

"It's the people who exercise their own authority. The Libyan people are free to exercise power and authority in the manner they deem fit," he said.

No-fly zone 'challenging'
Diplomats said Wednesday that some nations are talking about a no-fly zone modeled on those used over the Balkans in the 1990s.

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But NATO has already said that any such move would require a clear mandate from the U.N. Security Council, and that is unlikely because Russia, which has veto power in the council, has already rejected the idea.

Gen. James Mattis, commander of U.S. Central Command, told a Senate hearing that imposing a no-fly zone would be a "challenging" operation. "You would have to remove air defense capability in order to establish a no-fly zone, so no illusions here," he said. "It would be a military operation."

However, Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, urged consideration of a no-fly zone and said Gadhafi must go.

"The people of Libya do not ask for or need foreign troops on the ground. They are committed to doing what is necessary, but they do need the tools to prevent the slaughter of innocents on Libyan streets and I believe the global community cannot be on the sidelines while airplanes are allowed to bomb and strafe," he said. 

"A no fly-zone is not a long-term proposition and we should be ready to implement it as necessary," he added.


Video: Gadhafi forcefully strikes back at rebels

  1. Closed captioning of: Gadhafi forcefully strikes back at rebels

    >> now we turn to news overseas in an effort to form a free country . it's been a wild 24 hours in libya. moammar gadhafi has made it clear he's not going without a fight and there was some fierce fights overnight as he tried to take back parts of eastern libya from the rebels who took it from him. this was his first offensive against the fighters holding that part of the country, which by the way, is where the oil is and his forces tried to move in on two key towns. we have the story covered tonight with our team on the ground in the region. we want to begin with nbc's stephanie goss. she's in benghazi, the unofficial operating base for the anti- gadhafi rebels. stephanie , good evening.

    >> reporter: good evening, brian. gadhafi wasn't looking to retake a town. he was going after the oil. brega is one of the most important oil ports in the country, the surprise attack worked, at first. today gadhafi struck back at the rebels in the east. this youtube video claims to show the raging battle in brega . militia forces moved in at dawn with suvs and mounted machine guns. one opposition fighter in the small oil town described a massacre.

    >> a terrible situation. we went there nearly hundreds, just maybe 20 got back and returned alive.

    >> the ground attack was followed by air strikes , repeatedly hitting a weapons depot in a nearby town. while injuries from the gun battle filled the local hospital, this 6-year-old boy was caught in the cross fire .

    >> it's a massacre right now. it's a massacre.

    >> but these aren't peaceful protesters. this is a rebel fighting force , disorganized, inexperienced and heavily armed. when news came that brega had been attacked, they rushed to the fight and pushed back gadhafi 's militia. many signed up in the town of benghazi which has become the rebel capital of the east. we will win or we will die, this man says. the difficult part will be harnessing that energy and using it it create an effective fighting force . there have been 5,000 people that have been scripted so far. most have never served in the military and never fired a gun. formal military officers have started the training while munitions are stockpiled around town and weapons are tested. on the streets, demonstrations continue with defiance and in an open contempt of moammar gadhafi that was once unthinkable. stephanie goss, nbc

Photos: Moammar Gadhafi

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    AFP - Getty Images
    Above: Slideshow (34) Moammar Gadhafi through the years
    Slideshow (81) Conflict in Libya

Timeline: Recent Middle East unrest


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