Libyan People

PARIS - Libyan rebels on the verge of driving Moammar Gadhafi from power must secure weapons caches amassed by his regime and ensure they are not used to threaten the country's neighbors, the region, or beyond, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday. She also said the fight against the still-defiant Gadhafi must continue. "We must see our military mission through to its conclusion," she said of the NATO operation to protect civilians that began in March. "Coalition military operations should continue as long as civilians remain under threat of attack.

UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations gave strong backing to Libya's former rebels Friday, handing their National Transitional Council the country's U.N. seat and then lifting and modifying some sanctions that were imposed on Moammar Gadhafi's regime. News from the war front told a different story, however, as Gadhafi's fighters beat back an attempt to crush remnants of the old regime, forcing revolutionary troops to retreat into the mountains and turning Gadhafi's seaside hometown of Surt into an urban battlefield.

BENGHAZI, Libya - Omar el-Keish wanted to make a strong statement when he headed out with his wife and daughter for a revolutionary rally in the de facto rebel capital. Keish decided to bring along a flag. It wasn't the ubiquitous Libyan rebel flag that flutters at every downtown rally. He chose the American flag - the Stars and Stripes - on a long, heavy pole. The 57-year-old airline pilot waved the big fluttering fabric with both arms, and rally-goers smiled and flashed the V for victory sign at the sight of Old Glory.

SURMAN, Libya - Libya's government said a NATO air strike west of Tripoli early Monday destroyed a large family compound belonging to a close associate of Moammar Gadhafi's, killing at least 15 people, including three children. The alliance said the strike hit a "command and control" center. It was the second such claim in two days. Gadhafi's regime has repeatedly accused NATO of targeting civilians in an attempt to rally support against international intervention into Libya's civil war. The alliance insists it tries to avoid killing civilians.

Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy has threatened to build a "line of fire" - a million armed men and women - along Libya's coast, and has said that if Americans try to invade, "they will burn, they will die. " In an appearance Thursday on Libyan television, monitored by the British Broadcasting Corp., Khadafy also repeated his threat to attack any Arab nation that permitted the U.S. Sixth Fleet to use its ports. Khadafy, who has been relatively subdued in the few appearances he has made since last month's U.S. air strike against Libya, said he would create a "confrontation line" from the coastal city of Tubruq in eastern Libya to Zuwarah in the west.

PARIS - In diplomatic terms, international military action against Libya's leader went from the brainstorming stage to the shooting-at-tanks stage with stunning speed. Saturday's launch of U.S., British, and French air strikes with Arab backing and a United Nations mandate was not universally endorsed. And it's unclear whether it will be fast enough to do what its proponents want, to shore up rebel forces and oust Libya's leader Moammar Gadhafi. But the cascade of quick, weighty decisions getting there was unusual - just one of the unusual things about this dramatic operation.

TRIPOLI, Libya - Libya's new leaders will declare the country's liberation Sunday, officials said, a move that will start the clock for elections after months of bloodshed that culminated in the death of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. But the victory has been clouded by questions over how Gadhafi was killed after images emerged showing he was found alive, and then taunted and beaten by his captors. The long-awaited declaration will come more than two months after revolutionary forces swept into Tripoli and seized control of most of the nation.

TRIPOLI, Libya - Taunting NATO, Moammar Gadhafi said Friday that he was alive despite a series of air strikes and "in a place where you can't get to and kill me. " The defiant audio recording was broadcast after the Libyan government accused NATO of killing 11 Muslim clerics with an air strike on a disputed eastern oil town. Gadhafi had appeared on state TV but had not been heard speaking since a NATO attack on his Tripoli compound two weeks ago, which officials said killed one of his sons and three grandchildren.

TRIPOLI, Libya - Sen. Lindsey Graham said Thursday that Libyans who met a team of visiting senators had expressed gratitude and want to repay the international community that rallied around Moammar Gadhafi's opponents and played a key role in the dictator's defeat. Graham (R., S.C.) traveled to Tripoli with three other Republican senators as part of the highest-profile American delegation since rebels, backed by NATO air strikes that decimated Gadhafi's military forces, battled their way into the capital last month.

Remarks released at 5:07 p.m. Saturday from Brazil: "Good afternoon, everybody. Today I authorized the Armed Forces of the United States to begin a limited military action in Libya in support of an international effort to protect Libyan civilians. That action has now begun. "In this effort, the United States is acting with a broad coalition that is committed to enforcing United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973, which calls for the protection of the Libyan people. That coalition met in Paris today to send a unified message, and it brings together many of our European and Arab partners.