Strikes destroy 30 percent of Libya military power: Nato

Western powers have destroyed nearly a third of Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi's military since launching air strikes last month but Nato has been forced to change bombing tactics because of human shields. The besieged city of Misrata, the only big population centre in western Libya where a revolt against Qadhafi has not been crushed and which faces army tanks and snipers, is now the number one priority for Nato air strikes.
-- ICC says Qadhafi planned to kill protesters
-- Oil sale would be lifeline for rebel-held areas
-- Diplomatic peace efforts stalled
As fresh details of the military campaign emerged, the International Criminal Court said on Tuesday it had evidence Qadhafi's government had developed plans to crush protests by killing civilians even before the uprising in Libya broke out. "We have evidence that after the Tunisia and Egypt conflicts in January, people in the regime were planning how to control demonstrations inside Libya," court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told Reuters in The Hague.
"The planning at the beginning was to use tear gas and (if that failed to work) ..., shooting," said Moreno-Ocampo who is investigating Qadhafi, his sons and close aides and who will be requesting arrest warrants in the coming weeks. Protests against the government that began on February 15 swiftly descended into civil war after Qadhafi forces opened fire on demonstrators. He then crushed uprisings in Libya's west, leaving the east and Misrata in rebel hands.
Nato-led air power is now holding the balance in Libya, preventing Qadhafi forces from overrunning the revolt in the North African desert state but unable for now to hand the rebels outright victory with a stalemate on the desert battlefield. Nato took command of operations in Libya from a coalition led by the United States, Britain and France on March 31 and is enforcing a no-fly zone ordered by the United Nations and launching air strikes on Qadhafi forces to protect civilians.
"The assessment is that we have taken out 30 percent of the military capacity of Gaddafi," Brigadier General Mark van Uhm, a senior Nato staff officer, said in Brussels. Over the last day, air strikes around Misrata hit Qadhafi's tanks, air defence systems and other armoured vehicles. Near Brega in the east, where intense fighting raged for a sixth day on Tuesday, Nato aircraft struck a rocket launcher. Answering criticism by insurgents that air power became less effective with the alliance in control, Nato officials said the presence in Libyan skies was undiminished.
After a series of rapid rebel advances followed by headlong retreats, the insurgents held their ground for six days in Brega, putting their best trained forces in to battle for the oil town and keeping the disorganised volunteers away. A sustained government bombardment of rockets and mortar bombs, however, pushed the insurgent pick-up truck cavalcade back towards the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, their biggest retreat in several days of inconclusive battles.
More than one million people now need international relief help as a result of the fighting in Libya, the United Nations said. Assistance would be needed for more than 400,000 people who have left Libya and for 600,000 inside the country. A Turkish ship arrived at the port of Cesme in western Turkey on Tuesday afternoon carrying 321 injured Libyans after visiting Benghazi and Misrata. Sirens wailed as ambulances rushed the injured to nearby hospitals. In the capital Tripoli, angered by fuel shortages and long queues for basic goods caused by sanctions and air strikes, some residents began openly predicting Qadhafi's imminent downfall.