US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives in Rome Wednesday for a two-day meeting of the Libya Contact Group.
Clinton will set out the next phase of the NATO-led military action. The bombing campaign, which began March 19, has become increasingly savage, but has failed to oust the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The US Secretary of State’s task is to maintain the resolve of this now blood-soaked and increasingly fractious coalition, as she cajoles them into further acts of aggression.
The Rome meeting takes place in the same week that Gaddafi’s youngest son Saif al-Arab and three of Gaddafi’s grandchildren were buried after an attempt to assassinate Gaddafi himself failed. Two precision-guided bombs hit the Bab al-Azizyah complex in Tripoli, reducing part of it to rubble. Gaddafi was thought to have been present but escaped the raid.
The children, all under three years old, were examined by French surgeon Gerrard Le Clouereca, according to France 24. He does not work for the Gaddafi regime and confirmed that all of the children had died from blast injuries. He could not identify them individually because their faces were too badly mutilated. Earlier in the same day the state television centre had been targeted, as Gaddafi was giving a live address. The picture could be seen vibrating with each detonation. Gaddafi left the studio taking off his microphone as the cameras were still running.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/may2011/liby-m04.shtml