Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi took aim at the rebel-controlled town of Ras Lanuf on Monday, launching aerial strikes as part of an assault aimed at crushing the uprising against him.
At the end of the third week of unrest — protests began February 15 — Gadhafi’s aerial forces targeted the main road heading into the oil town after launching another airstrike earlier, five kilometers southeast of the city.
In what has turned into a civil war, members of the opposition fired anti-aircraft guns toward Gadhafi’s planes.
Some families fled Ras Lanuf, hoping to escape the violence that has engulfed some of the country’s most populous areas.
U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague said Monday “there are credible reports of the use of helicopter gunships against civilians by government forces.”
Three members of the U.N. Security Council — France, Britain, and the United States — were working Monday on a possible resolution that would include language on a no-fly zone over Libya, diplomatic sources at the United Nations said.
But any kind of military intervention could face sharp criticism from Russia and China, two fellow permanent members of the council that wield veto power.
U.S. President Barack Obama said Monday he had a “very clear message to those who are around Col. Gadhafi: It is their choice to make how they operate moving forward and they will be held accountable for whatever violence continues to take place there.”
“We’ve got NATO as we speak consulting in Brussels around a wide range of potential options, including potential military options, in response to the violence that continues to take place inside Libya,” he said.
In a statement, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said NATO did not intend to intervene in Libya, but “as a defence Alliance and a security organization, it is our job to conduct prudent planning for any eventuality.”
