Obama, European leaders plan Libya response

President Obama spoke with European leaders Thursday to coordinate an international response to the crisis in Libya. The president spoke with the leaders of France, Italy and the United Kingdom as he sought to ensure the safety of Americans in Libya and bring an end to the violence against the Libyan people.

Obama discussed with the respective leaders various ways to hold the Libyan government accountable for its violent crackdown over the past week and efforts to provide humanitarian assistance, according to a White House statement.

The United States has said that all options are under consideration, including sanctions about the Libyan regime and enforcement of a no-fly zone.

Obama and the European leaders will also work closely on the evacuation of foreigners, according to British Prime Minister David Cameron's Downing Street office.

Cameron stressed "the importance of seizing this moment of opportunity for change in the region," according to his spokesman.

The prime minister, on a visit to Muscat, told BBC, "The behavior of this dictator cannot be allowed to stand."

On Wednesday, Obama made his first public statement concerning the crisis in Libya, calling the crackdown by leader Muammar Gaddafi "outrageous" and "unacceptable."

Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini estimated on Wednesday that security forces and government-sanctioned mercenary squads had killed more than 1,000 people in Libya since the protests began on Feb. 17. Human rights groups say they have confirmed about 300 deaths.

The defiant leader blamed Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda for inciting anti-government protests that have spread across Libya in a 30-minute phone call Thursday to a television station. He said Al Qaeda forces had given "hallucinogenic" drugs to youth in Libya — "in their coffee with milk, like Nescafe" — to get them to incite unrest.

“Those people who took your sons away from you and gave them drugs and said let them die are launching a campaign over cell phones against your sons, telling them not to obey their fathers and mothers, and they are destroying their country,” Gaddafi said in the phone call.

In addition to his rambling appeal for Libyan youth to stay home and avoid the protests, Gaddafi has tried to maintain control by striking back at demonstrators with force. Gaddafi's forces and thousands of mercenaries attacked protesters around the capital, Tripoli, Thursday.

Gaddafi's forces used automatic weapons and an anti-aircraft gun to attack Zawiya, a city 30 miles west of Tripoli. They opened fire on a mosque, blasting the minaret with the anti-aircraft gun, where residents tried to fight back with hunting rifles. The fighting lasted four hours and left at least 100 dead, reported the New York Times. A Libyan news site put the death toll at 23.

A witness told AP that the residents at the mosque were holding a sit-in to support demonstrators in Tripoli.

Gaddafi's forces also tried to take back control of Misrata, Libya's third largest city and long a Gaddafi stronghold, by attacking dissidents at the airport with rocket-propelled grenades and mortars. Anti-government demonstrators had largely taken control of the city, which is about 120 miles east of Tripoli, on Wednesday.

Reuters reports that anti-government forces secured the city after the battle at the airport.

"Calm returned to the city around four hours ago after intense fighting in the morning," a witness told Reuters. "The people's spirits here are high, they are celebrating and chanting 'God is Greatest.' "

Opposition forces have taken control in most of the eastern half of the country.

GlobalPost correspondent Nichole Sobecki reports in this audio-slideshow from Benghazi, where the rebellion began a week ago, that the opposition is now firmly in control of the city. She says there is a feeling of pride among the people of Benghazi that they successfully kicked out Gaddafi's forces and are now creating a sense of order that they did not feel they received from the government.

The protests in Libya are the latest to sweep North Africa and the Middle East, but the crackdown by Gaddafi has proven to be the most brutal by any of the Arab leaders.

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