In a Tehran supermarket, Ali and his wife, a well-to-do couple in their 40s, were filling cart after cart with bags of groceries, prompting a bottleneck at the counter. When asked by other shoppers why he was buying so much, Ali responded he was stocking up for “when the U.S. will come and bombard” the Islamic Republic.

“I mean it,” said Ali, who like many here would not give his last name. He pointed at other frowning customers. “Look at the faces of people here. They are worried.”

The U.S. and its allies suspect Iran is trying to develop a nuclear weapon, but Tehran insists its program is for solely civilian purposes. Earlier this month, Iran announced that it had begun to enrich uranium at a new underground bunker. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton condemned the decision, saying it put Iran “a significant step closer” to gaining the ability to produce weapons-grade fuel.

On Jan. 11, an Iranian nuclear scientist was killed in a Tehran car explosion, an act that Iran’s supreme leader says was orchestrated by U.S. and Israeli spy agencies. The killing came shortly after Israel’s military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, warned that the Islamic Republic could expect “unnatural events” taking place in 2012.

Iran has threatened to respond by closing the strategic Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world’s crude oil is shipped. The U.S. has said it will act to prevent such a move.

“I am worried about war,” Farkhondeh, 55, said as she shopped for vegetables in a Tehran street stall. “The enmity between Iran and West is far from over, and two sides do not seem to be willing to defuse tensions…. Why should I not be worried?”

Mohammad Davoudnejad, a Tehran butcher shop worker in his 30s, said he was concerned about the threat of military action but complained he couldn’t keep track of all the statements being made by various players because TV signals have been jammed.

“What do you think?” he asked. “I am not able to figure out who is saying what. BBC Persian at our home is jammed. I don’t know for sure whether to be worried or not.”

Sanctions combined with more diplomatic pressure appear to be Washington’s preferred formula for handling its row with Iran. But the U.S. and Israel have not ruled out the option of striking Iran’s nuclear facilities if diplomatic efforts fails to settle the dispute.

“No options off the table means I’m considering all options,” President Obama said in December.

But earlier this week, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, in an apparent bid to calm speculation about military action, said an Israeli decision to strike Iranian nuclear facilities was “very far off.”

Many street vendors, meanwhile, fretted over bad business and an unpredictable future. Iran’s national currency, the rial, has plummeted against the U.S. dollar. The government recently banned black-market currency dealers from doing business.

“I’m increasingly losing my customers,” said a 55-year-old fruit and vegetable seller who gave his name as Akbar. “People are losing their purchasing power. Twenty years ago, after the eight-year-long war [with Iraq], there was a future, at least. We could predict and plan.”

Faribourz Raisdana, a reform-minded economist and analyst, dismissed threats of war and said things won’t go further than blustery language.

“I am not worried about war, as there is no evident tendency to want to wage war among officials from both sides,” he said. “There is a lot of rhetoric, but it’s not serious.”

LAT

The rescue team had completed the mission, subduing the attackers who had the rangers pinned down, and were departing in their Chinook helicopter when the aircraft was apparently hit, an official said.

Thirty Americans and eight Afghans were killed in the crash, making it the deadliest single loss for U.S. forces in the decade-long war in Afghanistan. The rangers, special operations forces who work regularly with the Seals, afterwards secured the crash site in the Tangi Joy Zarin area of Wardak province, about 60 miles (97km) southwest of Kabul, an official said.

On Sunday, Nato began an operation to recover the remains of the large transport helicopter, while Afghan and American forces battled insurgents in the region of the crash. The clashes Sunday did not appear to involve the troops around the crash site.

“There have been a small number of limited engagements in the same district as yesterday’s helicopter crash, however those clashes have not been in the direct vicinity of the crash site,” NATO said in a statement. “As of now, we have no reporting to indicate any coalition casualties resulting from these engagements.”

Shahidullah Shahid, the Wardak provincial spokesman, confirmed the helicopter recovery mission was under way and said there were reports of Taliban casualties overnight.

“There is a joint operation going on by Afghan and Nato forces. A clearing operation is ongoing in the district and there are reports of casualties among insurgents,” Shahid said. “The area is still surrounded by American forces.”

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, Nato said insurgents killed four alliance service members in two separate attacks in the east and the south. It did not provide their nationalities or any other details.

The deaths bring to 369 the number of coalition troops killed this year in Afghanistan and 46 this month.

The downing of the helicopter Saturday was heavy setback for the US-led coalition as it begins to draw down thousands of combat troops fighting what has become an increasingly costly and unpopular war. Of the 30 Americans killed, there were 22 Navy Seals, three Air Force combat controllers and a dog handler, his dog and four crew members, a current US official and a former official said on condition of anonymity because military officials were still notifying the families of the dead.

Most of the Seals belonged to the same elite unit that killed Osama bin Laden, although they were not the same people who participated in the May raid into Pakistan that killed the al-Qaida leader. The downing was a stinging blow to the lauded, tight-knit Seal Team 6, months after its crowning achievement.

Guardian

Berri stressed during a meeting with U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams that the UNIFIL can play a role in the demarcation of the disputed maritime borders with Israel “unless the navy forces of the UNIFIL are only found to monitor our regional waters and shores.”

As Safir newspaper reported on Tuesday that Williams was insisting on his stance during the discussion, saying that the “U.N. isn’t specialized in demarcating any maritime border, and the two disputed countries have to negotiate” over the issue.

The Israel official added that Hizbullah is labeling this matter as “the maritime Shebaa Farms,” noting that it is a strictly political affair, which the party is employing for its interests.

Tel Aviv is seeking to resolve this matter through direct negotiations with Lebanon, which has refused this proposal, he continued. It has rejected this idea ever since Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000, the Israeli official remarked.

The land borders were demarcated then, but not the maritime ones because the Lebanese government at the time refused to do so it and it is still rejecting all direct and indirect contact with Israel, said the spokesman.
Negotiations are the best manner to solve this issue and if Lebanon maintains its position, then the matter should be addressed before the United Nations, but international law stipulates that the two concerned countries must resolve the dispute themselves, he concluded.

Offshore oil and gas have been found in the Mediterranean Sea adjacent to the Lebanese and Israeli coasts and a dispute has erupted between the two sides over the lack of maritime borders designating the areas the two countries have authority to explore.

Naharnet

Obama said he would pull 10,000 troops from Afghanistan by year’s end, followed by about 23,000 more by the end of next summer and a steady withdrawal of remaining troops after that.

In a 15-minute televised address, Obama vowed that the United States — struggling to restore its global image, repair its faltering economy and bring down the high jobless rate at home — would end a decade of military adventures prompted by the September 11 attacks in 2001 and exercise new restraint with American military power.

“Tonight, we take comfort in knowing that the tide of war is receding,” Obama said, heralding the gradual drawdown of U.S. forces in Iraq and the limited U.S. involvement in the ongoing international campaign in Libya.

“America, it is time to focus on nation building at home.”

Yet news that Obama will pull the entire ’surge’ force he sent to Afghanistan in 2010 is certain to fuel friction between Obama and his military advisors who have warned about the perils of a hasty drawdown.

Nearly 10 years after the Taliban government was toppled, U.S. and NATO forces have been unable to deal a decisive blow to the resurgent Islamist group. The Afghan government remains weak and notoriously corrupt, and billions of dollars in foreign aid efforts have yielded meager results.

Obama’s decision on trimming the U.S. force was a more aggressive approach than many expected. It went beyond the options offered by General David Petraeus, the outgoing commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, whom Obama has picked to lead the CIA.

The president’s decision appears to reflect the competing pressures he faces as he seeks to rein in government spending and halt American casualties without endangering the gains his commanders say they have made across southern Afghanistan.

Outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he supported Obama’s decision, but the plan is unlikely to sit well with the Pentagon’s top brass who worry insurgents could regain lost territory and that fighting along Afghanistan’s eastern border with Pakistan will intensify.

Jeffrey Dressler, a military analyst at the Institute for the Study of War in Washington, said the Pentagon would have favored a much smaller initial withdrawal.

“But the fact is that the conditions on the ground don’t merit any sort of withdrawal — it’s not time to be pulling out a substantive amount of troops,” he said. “There’s a lot that has to be done in the east and you’re not out of the woods in the south yet.”

Yet Obama also faces mounting demands from some quarters of the Congress, impatient with a war that now costs more than $110 billion a year, for a larger initial drawdown.

Even after the withdrawal of the 33,00 U.S. troops, about 70,000 will remain in Afghanistan by the autumn of 2012, more than were there when Obama took office.

SHIFT SINCE BIN LADEN’S DEATH

The debate in Washington has shifted palpably since U.S. special forces killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan last month, which Obama said showed al Qaeda was ‘under enormous strain.’

Bin Laden’s death has given critics from both parties ammunition to argue that the Obama administration must narrow U.S. goals in desperately poor Afghanistan — focusing on lawless havens insurgents can use to launch attacks.

“We will not try to make Afghanistan a perfect place. We will not police its streets or patrol its mountains indefinitely,” Obama said. “That is the responsibility of the Afghan government.”

Obama said the United States would continue to support efforts to foster a political settlement with the Taliban. Officials acknowledge a peace deal may be far in the future even if one could be had.

Obama is mindful of the American public’s lack of support for the war as he looks to his 2012 re-election campaign.

A Pew Research poll released on Tuesday found a record 56 percent of Americans favor bringing U.S. forces in Afghanistan home as quickly as possible.

Still, the situation on the ground in Afghanistan remains volatile and Obama will face heat from Republicans if he is seen as rushing toward the exit.

The Taliban has been pushed out of some areas of their southern heartland, but the insurgency has intensified along Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan.

July marks the official start of NATO’s handover to local security forces in keeping with a plan to put Afghan soldiers in charge across the country by the end of 2014.

Serious doubts remain about whether Afghan forces, plagued by desertion and illiteracy, will be up to the task.

The more limited U.S. involvement in Libya, where NATO and its allies have been conducting air strikes since March in hopes leader Muammar Gaddafi will halt attacks on civilians, may be the model for future U.S. military engagement overseas.

“What I worry about is the message that is going to be taken away by our allies and potential allies about America’s orientation in the world,” said retired Lieutenant General David Barno, a former senior commander in Afghanistan.

“That sounded an awful lot like an ‘America come home’ speech,” he said.

Even as Obama charts a course for leaving Afghanistan, a major threat remains in nuclear-armed Pakistan. Obama warned Pakistan that the United States would not hesitate to launch strikes on militants targeting Americans.

Still, analysts have cautioned that if the United States walks away from Afghanistan, it does so at its own peril because of the risk the country could topple back into the grip of extremism or renewed civil war. Both of these scenarios could again open the door to al Qaeda.

“What will be important is what happens in two or three years from now,” said Tomas Valasek of the Center for European Reform in London.

“If Obama gets re-elected, and it all goes wrong, and Kabul has turned into another Mogadishu — then he would clearly have some explaining to do.”

Reuters

An opposition leader in Zawiya told VOA that pro-Gadhafi troops and tanks tried to enter the city late Monday, but anti-government protesters fought back, killing several attackers and forcing the rest to flee hours later. But, the man said the protesters have few weapons and cannot topple Gadhafi on their own.

Witnesses said Libyan government forces also gathered outside the western city of Misrata Monday, in preparation for an attempt to retake control of the country’s third-largest population center. Libyan anti-government protesters backed by defecting army units have seized parts of western Libya and all of the east since launching the uprising last month.

In the east, witnesses say Libyan warplanes tried to bomb Benghazi, but rebels controlling the country’s number-two city fired anti-aircraft weapons and forced the aircraft to retreat. The aircraft then struck a weapons depot in the eastern town of Ajdabiya.

In an interview with U.S. network ABC Monday, Gadhafi denied using his air force to attack anti-government protesters. He also laughed off demands by Western nations that he step down, saying “all my people love me … and will die to protect me.”

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice responded to Gadhafi’s comments by calling him “delusional.”  She said the interview “underscores how unfit he is to lead and how disconnected he is from reality.”

VOA

But the rebels dismissed the attacks as ineffectual, and Gadhafi faced a growing international campaign to force him from power, as the Obama administration announced it had seized $30 billion in Libyan assets and the European Union adopted an arms embargo and other sanctions.

As the Pentagon began repositioning Navy warships to support a possible humanitarian or military intervention, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told the Libyan leader to surrender power “now, without further violence or delay.”

The attacks by the colonel’s troops on an oil refinery in central Libya and on cities on either side of the country unsettled rebel leaders — who have maintained that they are close to liberating the country — and showed that despite defections by the military, the government may still possess powerful assets, including fighter pilots willing to bomb Libyan cities.

Rebel leaders said the attacks smacked of desperation, and the ease with which at least one assault, on the western city of Zawiyah, was repelled raised questions about the ability of the government to muster a serious challenge to the rebels’ growing power.

In an interview with ABC News, Gadhafi said he was fighting against “terrorists,” and he accused the West of seeking to “occupy Libya.” He gave no hint of surrender.
“My people love me,” he said. “They would die for me.”

Those unyielding words, and the attacks Monday, were met with both nerves and defiance by rebel military leaders as the two sides seemed to steel themselves for a long battle along shifting and ever more violent front lines.

Libya seemed to be brewing a major humanitarian crisis as tens of thousands of mostly impoverished contract workers tried desperately to flee to its neighbors, Tunisia to the west and Egypt to the east. The U.N.’s refugee agency called the situation a humanitarian emergency as workers hauling suitcases stood in long lines to leave Libya, many of them uncertain how they would finally get home.

The country they left behind faced similar uncertainty, as warplanes took to the sky for the first time in 10 days, according to military officials allied with the rebels. In a direct challenge to claims by those officials, who have asserted that Libyan air force pilots were no longer taking orders from Gadhafi, two jets conducted bombing raids Monday, according to witnesses and two military officers in Benghazi allied with the anti-government protesters.

Col. Hamed Bilkhair said the jets, two MIG-23s that took off from an air base near Gadhafi’s hometown in the city of Surt, struck three targets but were deterred by rebel anti-aircraft fire from striking a fourth at an air base in Benghazi. The jets — a bomber and an escort plane — attacked three other locations, south of Benghazi, and on the outskirts of the eastern city of Ajdabiya.

The colonel, speaking in an interview Monday evening, said government troops were in the midst of shelling Misurata, a breakaway city 130 miles east of the capital.
In Zawiyah, a city with important oil resources just 30 miles from the capital, residents said they rebuffed a series of attacks Monday, suffering no casualties but killing about 10 soldiers and capturing about a dozen others. A government spokesman confirmed the death toll.

“It is perfect news,” said A.K. Nasrat, 51, an engineer who is among the rebels, before adding, “There is no way they are going to take this city out of our hands unless we all die first.”
The first attack took place shortly after midnight, when some pro-Gadhafi soldiers in pickup trucks tried to pass through the city’s eastern gate, Nasrat said. But they were spotted by rebel sentries who defeated them with help from army and police defectors defending the town. Four soldiers were killed and several captured, with some of the captives readily surrendering their arms and switching sides, he said

Then, in the early evening, several witnesses said, the Gadhafi forces — believed to be led by his son Khamis’ private militia — attacked from both the east and the west. Three pickup trucks tried to enter the narrow city gates from the west, but a rebel-held artillery unit struck one, blowing it up and overturning a second truck, Nasrat said. Six more pickup trucks tried to breach the eastern gate, he said, but after an exchange of fire the rebels captured two of the trucks and several of the soldiers.

“So about 12 or 14 soldiers were hostages,” he said, “and eight of them turned over their arms and joined the people. They are on our side now.”

At about 11 p.m. residents of Zawiyah reported in telephone interviews that they heard a renewed outbreak of gunfire from the west lasting five to 15 minutes.

For days, military leaders in Benghazi have said they were preparing to assemble a force of thousands for a final assault on Tripoli; some of the officials have even promised to send planes to bomb Gadhafi’s fortified compound, Bab al-Aziziya.

But there are few signs that a plan has materialized, though military leaders maintain they are simply waiting for the right time. A fighter pilot sympathetic to the anti-government protesters, Mohammed Miftah Dinali, expressed some frustration that he had not yet been called on to aid the rebel effort.

“My friends and I are willing to go and do an airstrike on Gadhafi’s compound,” he said. “I cannot just sit and watch this happen.”

New York Times

A resident of Tripoli who spoke on the condition of anonymity said his neighbor was arrested because he had been posting messages on the popular social networking sites.

“The regime is erasing evidence of its atrocities,” he said, adding that it may be a long time, if ever, before the real toll of the regime’s crackdown is known. “Gadhafi is waging a campaign of revenge.”

A Libyan-American in Tripoli, who spoke on the condition of anonymity citing a fear for his life, said he was terrified when security forces raided his neighbor’s house.

“I thought they were coming to get me because I have been posting messages on Facebook,” he said.

In phone and Internet Skype interviews with The Washington Times on Sunday, Tripoli residents described a continuing campaign of terror unleashed by the Gadhafi regime over the weekend.

Security forces and mercenaries loyal to the embattled Libyan dictator escalated their attacks against suspected opponents of the regime, executing civilians on the streets of Tripoli.

Armed men riding in vehicles marked with Revolutionary Guard Corps insignia were shooting people in the streets and bundling their bodies into their cars before speeding off.

The United States on Sunday kept up pressure on the Libyan regime.

Two U.S. senators on a visit to Egypt on Sunday urged President Obama to help arm a provisional government in Libya’s second-largest city, Benghazi.

Sens. John McCain, Arizona Republican, and Joe Lieberman, Connecticut independent, also called for the United States and its allies to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya to prevent the military from again firing on civilian protesters from the air.

In Libya, heavy fighting was reported from the cities of Az Zawiya and Misurata in the west. Both cities were under the control of anti-government forces Sunday, but residents said Col. Gadhafi’s troops had them surrounded.

In the east, an uneasy calm hung over Benghazi, which is under the control of anti-government forces and soldiers who have deserted the military.

Rumors that Col. Gadhafi had sent troops to crush the uprising in the east fueled the nervousness of Benghazi residents who implored the international community to impose a no-fly zone over Libya for their protection.

“We are scared Gadhafi may bomb us with poison gas. This guy is dangerous. He knows he is done for, and he wants to take us all down with him,” Benghazi resident Mohamed El-Faituri said.

In Tripoli, residents said the city resembled a ghost town.

A resident said security forces had prevented ambulances from entering the Fashloum area of Tripoli where heavy fighting has taken place.

“It is just incredible that unarmed people were showered with live fire and real bullets, no tear gas, no rubber bullets. Just real killer bullets,” he said on the condition of anonymity.

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously on Saturday to impose sanctions on Libya, but Col. Gadhafi on Sunday dismissed the U.N. resolution as illegitimate.

“The U.N. is not allowed to meddle in the internal affairs of other countries, unless a country is attacking another state,” Col. Gadhafi said in an interview with Serbia’s Pink television station.

The Washington Times

As forces opposed to the longest-serving Arab leader took control of several western Libyan towns, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton echoed the calls of world leaders, including President Barack Obama, for him to quit.

“I think it is way too soon to tell how this is going to play out. We are going to be ready and prepared to offer any kind of assistance that anyone wishes to have from the US,” Clinton told reporters, noting Washington was in touch with the Libyan opposition.

“We are just at the beginning of what will follow Gaddafi,” she said Sunday.

“First we have to see the end of his regime and with no further bloodshed,” she continued, noting Washington is eager for his ouster “as soon as possible.”

The top US diplomat spoke as she prepared to leave for a ministerial-level meeting of the UN Human Rights Council on Monday, and for bilateral talks with many of her counterparts about the crisis in Libya.

Meanwhile, The New York Times reported late Sunday that US and European officials discussed plans to impose a no-fly zone over Libya to prevent further killings of civilians by troops loyal to the country’s embattled leader.

The newspaper cited an unnamed senior administration official as saying that no decision had been made.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Sunday that a key friendship treaty signed between Italy and Libya in 2008 was “de facto suspended.”

According to The Times, the accord contains a non-aggression clause that some analysts said complicated Italy’s position in the event of international military intervention in Libya.

The chaos engulfing the oil-rich North African state of 6.3 million has fanned fears that Gaddafi’s hold on power could descend into civil war as the United Nations said nearly 100,000 people have streamed out of the country.

More than 1,000 people are believed to have been killed in a government crackdown on the protests.

Protest leaders established a transitional “national council” in eastern cities seized from the Gaddafi regime and called on the army to help them take the capital Tripoli.

Two senior US lawmakers urged Washington to recognize any transitional government and supply it with weapons and humanitarian assistance to oust Gaddafi, who has ruled Libya with an iron fist for four decades.

“We ought to recognize the provisional government as the legitimate government of Libya and we ought to give that government certainly humanitarian assistance and military arms… to give them the wherewithal to fight on behalf of the people of Libya against a cruel dictator,” Senator Joe Lieberman told CNN.

Lieberman was speaking alongside Republican Senator John McCain from Egypt, where a popular uprising swept President Hosni Mubarak from power earlier this month after nearly 30 years of autocratic rule.

McCain urged Obama, his former rival in the 2008 presidential campaign, to “get tough” and make it clear that Libyan officials involved in attacks on their own people would face prosecution for war crimes.

The war hero and former naval aviator also called for a no-fly zone over the country so that “Libyan pilots won’t fly” and shoot on civilians.

But he stopped short of calling for a military intervention with ground forces in the oil-rich North African country, though he did not rule out that possibility.

Lieberman, an independent who used to be a Democrat, said he understood the Obama administration’s initial hesitation in speaking out strongly against Libya’s crackdown due to concerns over the safety of US citizens in the country.

But, he added: “Frankly I wish we had spoken out much more clearly and early against the Gaddafi regime… The fact is now is the time for action, not just statements.”

The UN Security Council has imposed a travel ban and assets freeze on Gaddafi’s regime and ordered an investigation into possible crimes against humanity by the Libyan leader, the first time such a decision has been made unanimously.

On Friday, Obama announced unilateral sanctions targeting Gaddafi and his inner circle in a move intended to encourage defections and peel away loyalists defending the Libyan’s 42-year rule.

Clinton has signed an order revoking the US visas of Libyan officials and others linked to the violence against civilians. New visas will now be denied as a matter of policy.

Alsharq Alawsat

“The situation of the Lebanese there is tragic,” said Mustafa al-Hassan, 50, upon arriving at Rafik Hariri international airport. He accused head of the Lebanese diplomatic mission in Libya, Nazih Ashour, of neglect. “We didn’t feel he wanted to cooperate with us.”

The Lebanese came aboard a Jordanian plane along with several members of their family holding Libyan passports. On Friday, an official at Middle East Airlines, Lebanon’s flag carrier, said Libyan authorities had refused to allow one of their planes to land.

The plane was intended to evacuate between 60 and 100 Lebanese nationals stranded at the airport in the Libyan capital.

Another passenger, Iman Hadraj who is married to a Libyan, said: “There are a lot of Lebanese waiting to be transported to Tripoli’s airport in order to come to Lebanon.”

Tens of thousands of foreigners have so far fled Libya by air, land and sea as world governments scrambled to pull their citizens out amid escalating violence.

Anti-regime protests have erupted in Libya last week after a popular uprising in Tunisia that ousted authoritarian leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and another uprising in Egypt leading to President Hosni Mubarak’s resignation earlier in February.

Now Lebanon, Naharnet

Mustafa Abdel Jalil made the announcement in an interview with Qatar-based television network Al-Jazeera late Saturday.

Abdel Jalil says the transitional government is based in Libya’s second-largest city of Benghazi and includes military and civilian figures. He says it will lead for “no more than three months” to prepare for “fair elections” enabling the Libyan people to choose their leader.

Abdel Jalil quit as Mr. Gadhafi’s justice minister last week and joined the revolt that began earlier this month against the Libyan leader’s 42-year rule.

It is not clear how much support Jalil’s caretaker government has in opposition-held communities. Anti-government protesters backed by defecting army units have seized control of eastern Libya and several parts of the west after battles with pro-Gadhafi forces.

Libya’s Ambassador to the United States Ali Aujali said Saturday he supports the caretaker government established by Abdel Jalil. Aujali is one of many Libyan diplomats around the world who have broken ties with Mr. Gadhafi since the uprising started.

The U.S. State Department had no immediate comment on Abdel Jalil’s move.

Mr. Gadhafi still controls the Libyan capital, Tripoli, in the country’s northwest. Armed Gadhafi loyalists patrolled the city in all-terrain vehicles Saturday, a day after he promised to supply his supporters with weapons to defend his leadership.

Many Tripoli residents stayed in their homes, terrified of encountering pro-Gadhafi militiamen who have shot and killed scores of opposition protesters this month. Some residents gathered Saturday to attend the funeral of an anti-government demonstrator who was shot Friday.

Mr. Gadhafi’s son, Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, told journalists that most of Libya was “calm” and “peaceful.” He described opposition forces controlling the western cities of Misrata and Zawiya as a minor problem.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says reports indicate more than 1,000 people have been killed in Libya’s uprising.

VOA