ICC to Decide Monday on Gadhafi Arrest Warrant
International Criminal Court judges will on Monday decide whether to issue an arrest warrant for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi for crimes against humanity, the court said on its website.
The ICC prosecution has requested three arrest warrants for Gadhafi, his son Seif al-Islam and the head of Libyan intelligence, Abdullah al-Senussi, the court said.
A public hearing will be held on Monday at 1100 GMT.
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday that time is running out for Gadhafi, after the strongman said he had his "back to the wall" but vowed to battle "to the beyond."
"Time is on our side, time is not on the side of Colonel Gadhafi who's losing his leading military commanders," Cameron told reporters in Prague.
"The sands of time are running out for him, and so we need to be patient and persistent," he added.
Cameron insisted this week that Britain can maintain the current level of operations in Libya -- a campaign the defense ministry in London said will cost around £260 million -- despite concerns raised by senior military figures.
Britain deployed Apache attack helicopters over Libya this month in an attempt to use their formidable firepower to break the stalemate in the fight between rebels and Gadhafi's forces.
"We will resist and the battle will continue to the beyond, until you're wiped out. But we will not be finished," Gadhafi said in an audio message broadcast on Libyan television late on Wednesday.
"There's no longer any agreement after you killed our children and our grandchildren ... We have our backs to the wall. You (the West) can move back," Gadhafi said in homage to his comrade Khuwildi Hemidi, several members of whose family were killed on Monday in reported NATO raids on his residence.
NATO, meanwhile, insisted there would be no let-up in its air war despite Italian calls for "an immediate humanitarian suspension of hostilities" in Libya in order "to create effective humanitarian corridors."
NATO has acknowledged its warplanes early on Monday hit Sorman west of Tripoli but insisted that the target was military, a precision air strike against a "high-level" command and control node.
Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said 15 people, including three children, were killed in the attack, which he slammed as a "cowardly terrorist act which cannot be justified."
NATO on Wednesday pledged to carry on bombing military targets in Libya, saying more civilians would die if operations were not maintained under a U.N. mandate to protect Libyans from the exactions of Gadhafi's regime.
"NATO will continue this mission because if we stop, countless more civilians could lose their lives," NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in a video statement on the military alliance's website.
The secretary general did not directly refer to Italy, whose Foreign Minister Franco Frattini on Wednesday called for "an immediate humanitarian suspension of hostilities" in Libya.
"We have seen the effects of the crisis and therefore also of NATO action not only in eastern and southwestern regions but also in Tripoli," Frattini told a parliamentary committee in Rome.
"I believe an immediate humanitarian suspension of hostilities is required in order to create effective humanitarian corridors," while negotiations should also continue on a more formal ceasefire and peace talks, he said.
The commander of the NATO operation, Canada's Lieutenant General Charles Bouchard, said a ceasefire risked becoming "just an opportunity for both sides to reload and to engage in further violence down the road."
"We must continue to stay engaged to prevent that rearming," Bouchard said.
Frattini's comments had drawn a swift rebuff from NATO ally France which has played a leading role in the military intervention in Libya.
"The coalition and the countries that met as the Abu Dhabi contact group two weeks ago were unanimous on the strategy -- we must intensify the pressure on Gadhafi," foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero told reporters.
The rebels fighting to end Gadhafi's four-decade rule were also dismissive of the Italian ceasefire proposal.
"Even if NATO halts operations, we will fight tooth and nail, we will fight until our country is freed, we don't fear (a NATO cessation)," rebel spokesman Mahmoud Shamam said.
The Libyan people have tasted freedom and will not accept anything less ... they will fight to the end, until victory."
In its latest operational update on Thursday, NATO said its warplanes struck, among other targets, a radar facility and a command and control node in the Tripoli area and two radar towers near the rebel-held city of Misrata.
Source: Agence France Presse
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