Rebels vow democracy TRIPOLI: Western warplanes silenced Muammar Gaddafi's artillery and tanks besieging the rebel-held town of Misrata Wednesday after an American admiral warned that the Libyan leader's armor was now in the crosshairs. Breathing defiance, Gaddafi earlier said Western powers who carried out a fourth night of airstrikes on Libya to protect civilians under a UN mandate were “a bunch of fascists who will end up in the dustbin of history”. The Western powers enforcing the UN resolution with their military might are struggling to agree on a coherent command structure including NATO after Washington said it wanted to hand over leadership of the campaign in the coming days. Gaddafi's tanks had kept up the shelling of Misrata, killing dozens of people this week, and residents said a “massacre” was taking place with doctors treating the wounded in hospital corridors. Snipers killed five people Wednesday, they said. “Now with the airstrikes we are more optimistic,” Saadoun, a Misrata resident, told Reuters by telephone. “These strikes give us hope, especially the fact they are precise and are targeting the (Gaddafi) forces and not only the bases.” At least two explosions were heard in Tripoli before dawn Wednesday on a fourth night of strikes and Gaddafi looked set to dig in for the long haul. “We will not surrender,” Gaddafi told supporters forming a human shield to protect him at his Tripoli compound. Gaddafi forces resumed on Wednesday their bombardment of Zintan, another rebel-held town in west Libya, a resident said, and tanks were expected there. Rebels were clashing with the army inside Ajdabiyah, rebel fighters said on Wednesday, and residents were fleeing. Meanwhile, as the rebels sought to organize their command structure on the battlefield, the rebel political leadership named Mahmoud Jabril to head an interim government and pick ministers. Members of the rebel council in Paris, meanwhile, said they want to establish a secular democracy that would respect oil contracts awarded under Muammar Gaddafi if the leader is toppled.
