Leaders of airstrikes should go: Gadhafi

Gadhafi's message on Thursday was undercut by its delivery — a scroll across the bottom of state TV as he remained out of sight. The White House said the strongman's inner circle was clearly crumbling with the loss of Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa, who flew from Tunisia to England on Wednesday.

Ali Abdessalam Treki, a former foreign minister and U.N. General Assembly president, announced his departure on several opposition websites the next day, saying “It is our nation's right to live in freedom and democracy and enjoy a good life.”

Gadhafi accused the leaders of the countries attacking his forces of being “affected by power madness.”

“The solution for this problem is that they resign immediately and their peoples find alternatives to them,” the Libya state news agency quoted him as saying.

His government's forces have regained momentum on the rapidly moving front line of the battle with opposition forces, retaking the town of Brega after pushing the rebels miles back toward the territory they hold in eastern Libya.

The rebels said they were undaunted, taking heart from the departures in Gadhafi's inner circle.

Most high-level Libyan officials are trying to defect but are under tight security and having difficulty leaving the country, said Ibrahim Dabbashi, the deputy ambassador in Libya's U.N. mission, which now backs the opposition.

“Koussa is one of the pillars of Gadhafi's regime since the 1970s,” said Abdel Moneim al-Houni, a former Libyan Arab League representative who was among the first wave of Libyan diplomats to defect this month. “His defection means that he knew that the end of Gadhafi is coming and he wanted to jump from the sinking boat.”

In another blow to the regime, U.S. officials revealed Wednesday that the CIA has sent small teams of operatives into rebel-held eastern Libya while the White House debates whether to arm the opposition.

Despite the setbacks and ongoing airstrikes — now led by NATO — Gadhafi loyalists have retaken much of the territory the rebels had captured since airstrikes began March 19.

Rebels had advanced overnight to the west gate of Brega, a town important to Libya's oil industry that has gone back and forth between rebel and loyalist hands. They were in Brega at dawn, but they soon pulled out under heavy shelling from Gadhafi's forces. Black smoke billowed in the air over Brega as mortars exploded.

Brega was deserted and Jabbar Ali, 25, a rebel aviation technician, said Gadhafi's forces were at its eastern gates and controlled much of the city.

Many people also have fled Ajdabiya, a rebel-held city about 50 miles (80 kilometers) to the east, for fear that government forces were on their way.

The fighting has highlighted the rebels' weaknesses: Some ran screaming to cars after being frightened by the outgoing fire from their own side.

The U.S. has ruled out using ground troops in Libya but it is considering providing arms to the rebels.

Koussa is not the first high-ranking member of the regime to quit — the justice and interior ministers resigned early in the conflict and joined the rebellion based in the east. Koussa, however, is a close confidant of Gadhafi's.

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