TRIPOLI: The leader of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was set to hold talks on Libya with British leaders on Wednesday after fresh blasts rocked Tripoli following a three-day pause in the alliance’s raids on forces loyal to Muammar Qaddafi.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen was to meet with British Prime Minister David Cameron and Foreign Secretary William Hague in London for discussions on the 11-week military operation.
The talks, a day after top brass from Britain and France publicly raised concerns about the length of the NATO air war, came as rebels advanced against Qaddafi’s troops by taking a village southwest of Libya’s capital.
The rebels seized Al-Rayaniya, located east of the heavily fought-over hilltown of Zintan in the mainly Berber Nafusa mountains, southwest of Tripoli, an Agence France-Presse correspondent reported.
The village of some 10,000 residents is located on a strategic route connecting Zintan and Yefren, two towns that rebels hope to wrest from Qaddafi.
Pro-Qaddafi forces, however, bombed the village with Grad rockets. Two rebels were killed in the fighting and about a dozen more were wounded.
In Tripoli, blasts were heard at about 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday (5:30 a.m. on Wednesday), and witnesses reported seeing black smoke rising from a site close to downtown.
Libya’s state news agency Jana reported that civilian sites in the Al-Ferjan district had been targeted by NATO, the “colonialist, crusader aggressor,” and that the attacks had set homes on fire.
Several people had been injured, it added, without elaborating.
The capital and its suburbs have been the target of almost daily NATO air raids since it started its military operation on March 31, a month after Qaddafi’s forces began a bloody crackdown on pro-reform protests.
In Washington, politicians grew impatient with the pace of operations.
Republican House Speaker John Boehner gave President Barack Obama until Friday to ask Congress to authorize military action “or withdraw all US troops and resources from the mission.”
Boehner warned Obama that the administration may fall foul, as of Sunday, of a 90-day deadline set by the 1973 War Powers Act aimed at curtailing US presidents’ ability to deploy the military overseas.
The White House vowed later to answer critics of the conflict.
“We are in the final stages of preparing extensive information for the House and Senate that will address a whole host of issues about our ongoing efforts in Libya,” national security spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement.
Polls show that the conflict is very unpopular with the US public.
NATO said on Tuesday that it “has the resources” to conduct its campaign despite a warning from Washington that reliance on US military could jeopardize the mission.
“We continue to maintain a high tempo of operation,” said NATO spokesman Oana Lungescu.
“It is clear that NATO has the resources to keep up the pressure on the (Muammar) Qaddafi regime. We know it takes time,” she added.
