OnIslam.net

WASHINGTON - The United States rebuffed on Wednesday, April 6, an appeal by Muammar Gaddafi for a ceasefire, calling for the embattled Libyan leader to leave power.

"Mister Gaddafi knows what he must do," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a news conference with Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, Reuters reported.

"There needs to be a ceasefire, his forces need to withdraw from the cities that they have forcibly taken at great violence and human cost.

“There needs to be a decision made about his departure from power and ... his departure from Libya," she said.

Gaddafi has sent a letter to US President Barack Obama calling for a halt of western-led military attacks on Libya.

"We can confirm that there was a letter, but obviously not the first," Obama spokesman Jay Carney told reporters traveling with Obama to Pennsylvania.

"The conditions the president laid out were clear, which is action, not words," he added, declining to provide details on the letter's contents.

A US official said Washington had received many letters from Gaddafi over the years and the latest was not being taken any more seriously than the earlier ones.

Gaddafi has been facing his worst political crisis in his 42-year rule after thousands of Libyans took up arms for his ouster.

A deadly crackdown by Gaddafi’s troops on opponents, which left thousands of people dead, prompted the passage of a UN resolution authorizing a military action against Gaddafi’s regime.

Departure

The Obama administration has called for Gaddafi to leave power to help resolve the Libyan conflict.

"I don't think there is any mystery about what is expected from Mister Gaddafi at this time," Clinton said.

"The sooner that occurs, and the bloodshed ends, the better it will be for everyone."

Gaddafi has rejected calls to step down, arguing that he was not a president to leave power.

Media reports earlier said that Gaddafi’s sons were championing a proposal to sideline their father from power to help resolve the crisis.

On the ground, NATO planes launched airstrikes into the Libyan capital Tripoli on Thursday.

"There was a plane flying around in the sky, then there were two explosions ... the second one was strong," a Tripoli resident, who was watching from the roof of his building, told Reuters.

He said the explosions happened at about 11:30 a.m. (0930 GMT)

The strikes came a day after Libyan opposition forces criticized  NATO performance in the conflict.

Clinton defended the performance of NATO forces conducting air strikes to enforce a no-fly zone and protect civilians from attack by Gaddafi's forces in fighting between the longtime North African leader and opposition forces.

The United States took the lead in air strikes when military action was first authorized by the United Nations on March 17 against Gaddafi loyalists attacking civilians.

NATO assumed full command of military operations from the United States, Britain and France last Thursday.

NATO's air assault has targeted Gaddafi's military infrastructure but only to protect civilians, not to provide close air support for the opposition, to their dismay, as part of the military measures authorized by the UN Security Council.