Britain readies 'bunker-busting' bombs for Libya

Britain is to add "bunker-busting" bombs to the arsenal its warplanes are using over Libya, a weapon it said on Sunday would send a loud message to Muammar Qadhafi that it is time to quit.
Britain and other Nato powers are ratcheting up their military intervention in Libya to try to break a deadlock that has seen Qadhafi hold on to power despite weeks of air strikes and a rebel uprising. "We are not trying to physically target individuals in Qadhafi's inner circle on whom he relies but we are certainly sending them increasingly loud messages," British Defence Secretary Liam Fox said in a statement.
"Qadhafi may not be capable of listening but those around him would be wise to do so," he said.
His ministry said the Enhanced Paveway III bombs, each weighing nearly a tonne and capable of penetrating the roof or wall of a hardened building, have arrived at the Italian air base from where British warplanes fly missions over Libya.
Nato warplanes have already been raising the pace of their air strikes on Tripoli, with Qadhafi's Bab al-Aziziyah compound in the centre of the city being hit repeatedly. The military alliance says it is acting under a mandate from the United Nations to protect civilians from attack by security forces trying to put down a rebellion against Qadhafi's four-decade rule.
But the more aggressive tactics risk causing divisions within the fragile alliance backing the intervention, and could also lead to Nato being dragged closer towards putting its troops on Libyan soil, something it is anxious to avoid.The Qatar-based Al Jazeera television station broadcast video footage of what it said were foreign forces, possibly British, on the ground near the rebel-held city of Misrata.
There were a number of armed men, some wearing sunglasses and keffiyahs, or traditional Arab headscarves, who moved off when they realised they were being watched, the footage showed.
Further deepening their involvement, Britain and France have said they will deploy attack helicopters over Libya to better pick out pro-Qadhafi forces. Helicopters are more vulnerable to attack from the ground than high-flying warplanes.
Qadhafi denies attacking civilians, saying his forces were obliged to act to contain armed criminal gangs and al Qaeda militants. He says the Nato intervention is an act of colonial aggression aimed at grabbing Libya's plentiful oil reserves.
South African leader Jacob Zuma was expected to arrive in Tripoli on Monday, his second visit since the conflict began, to try to broker a cease-fire on behalf of the African Union.
Zuma's previous visit made little progress because Qadhafi has refused to relinquish power while rebel leaders say that is a pre-condition for any truce deal.
Qadhafi's foreign minister held talks in Tunisia on Saturday with Lord David Trefgarne, a former British government minister, according to a former British ambassador to Libya who took part in the discussions.
The ex-ambassador refused to disclose what they talked about and Britain's government said neither it not any intermediaries were talking to officials loyal to Qadhafi. Rebels control the east of Libya around the city of Benghazi, Libya's third-biggest city Misrata, and a mountain range stretching from the town of Zintan, 150 km (95 miles) south of Tripoli, towards the border with Tunisia.