LONDON - An influential Libyan scholar urged world powers on Friday to recognise the rebel National Libyan Council, supply it with weapons and impose a no-fly zone to ground Muammar Gaddafi's warplanes. Sheikh Ali al-Salabi, one of Libya's most prominent Islamic scholars, made a similar plea to Arab leaders meeting in Cairo on Saturday to "help the Libyan people regain their stolen freedoms". "The Libyan people went to the streets in peaceful and civilised demonstrations to ask Gaddafi the dictator to step down after 42 years in power. These 42 years were black and dark years for the Libyan people," al-Salabi told Reuters in a telephone interview from Qatar. "The Libyans want Gaddafi, his sons and his miserable regime out. The Libyans want the international community to recognise the transitional council and to support it with arms, food and medicine to redress the balance and protect the people from the onslaught by Gaddafi's forces," he said. Gaddafi's forces launched a sea and tank assault overnight, intensifying a counter-offensive against the out-gunned insurgents. Government forces, with total air superiority and a big advantage in tanks, appear to have regained momentum in the three-week-old conflict. If their push proceeds apace it could overtake sluggish international efforts to halt Gaddafi. "Gaddafi today and yesterday used planes, tanks, artillery and warships to attack people who don't have equal military capability and equipment. Imposing a no-fly zone is a demand by the council," al-Salabi said. He said Islamist scholars and groups backed the council, based in the traditional Libyan opposition bastion of Benghazi and headed by ex-Justice Minister Mustafa Abdel Jalil. The body has made clear it does not want foreign troops on Libyan soil but has has urged world powers to impose a no-fly zone to ground Gaddafi's warplanes. Al-Salabi, who was jailed for seven years from 1980-81, acted as mediator in negotiations between Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam and the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), which represented the greatest challenge to Gaddafi's regime in the 1990s. The LIFG waged an insurgency in the east of the country and made several failed attempts to assassinate Gaddafi. The dialogue led to the release of some 700 Islamist activists over the past three years as part of an attempt by Gaddafi's son to foster reconciliation with opposition groups and allay Western concerns about human rights violations.
