Gaddafi defiant as fighting tears Libyan rebel stronghold

Fighting raged around Libya's rebel stronghold of Benghazi yesterday as Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi gave a defiant response to world leaders planning military action against him.
A huge plume of smoke rose over Libya's second city as thousands of people fled eastward after a series of air strikes and sustained shelling, an AFP reporter said.
Correspondents reported that tanks belonging to Gaddafi's forces had entered the city of more than one million people mid-morning.
The Libyan government insisted it was observing a ceasefire it had announced on Friday, shortly after the United Nations Security Council voted to authorise the use of force against Gaddafi's troops to spare civilians.
It said its armed forces were under attack west of Benghazi and had responded in self-defence.
But the rebels, who have been trying to overthrow the Libyan leader for more than a month, said his troops had continued to bombard cities, violating the ceasefire continuously since its declaration.
"The gangs of Al-Qaeda attacked the units of the Libyan armed forces stationed to the west of Benghazi," a statement carried by the official Jana news agency said, using Tripoli's term for the insurgents.
It accused the rebels of using "a helicopter and a fighter jet to bomb the Libyan armed forces in blatant violation of the no-fly zone imposed by the UN Security Council."
The United States will deploy its "unique capabilities" as part of the UN-sanctioned military operation against Muammar Gaddafi, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said yesterday.
"America has unique capabilities" to help enforce UN Security Council Resolution 1973 authorising military action, Clinton said in Paris after a summit on Libya.
"We will bring them to bear to help our European and Canadian allies and air partners stop further violence against civilians, including through the effective implementation of a no-fly zone."
"Gaddafi continues to defy the world... attacks on civilians go on," Clinton said, adding that "further delay would only put more civilians at risk."
"The world will not sit idly by while more innocent civilians are killed. The United States will support our allies and partners as they move to enforce Resolution 1973. We are standing with the people of Libya, and we will not waver in our efforts to protect them."
Clinton hailed Arab involvement in action against Libya, after the 22-member Arab League last week also called for a no-fly zone.
Meanwhile, hundreds of loyalists of Gaddafi massed Saturday at his Bab al-Aziziyah headquarters and at the international airport, state television said, as France launched an air strike on Libya.
And 50 foreign journalists were taken on a tour of Bab al-Aziziyah, south of the capital, an AFP correspondent said.
"Crowds are forming around the targets identified by France," state television said, showing pictures of flag-waving people gathering at Gaddafi's headquarters and the airport.