Libya Rebels Hail U.S. Drones, McCain Urges Recognition of Interim Council

Insurgents bogged down in their bid to oust Moammar Gadhafi hailed Friday a U.S. decision to deploy armed drones over Libya, as Senator John McCain urged the world to recognize the rebels' council.

"We are so pleased," media liaison official for the rebels' Transitional National Council (TNC), Mustafa Gheriani, told Agence France Presse in Benghazi, their eastern stronghold.

"We hope that this can bring some relief to the people in Misrata," he added, referring to the rebel-held city in western Libya which has been pounded by strongman Gadhafi's forces for more than six weeks, leaving hundreds dead.

U.S. President Barack Obama authorized deployment of missile-carrying drone warplanes over Libya "because of the humanitarian situation," U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday.

Libyan rebels, who on Thursday overran a post on the Tunisian border to mark their first advance in weeks against Gadhafi's forces, have complained that civilians are being killed in places like Misrata.

"Our houses are being hit by bombs and rockets," said 45-year-old Ibrahim Issa Abu Hajjar, who fled Misrata with hundreds of civilians aboard a Turkish ferry that docked in Benghazi, the rebels' eastern stronghold.

"We want the allies to stop Gadhafi's forces from taking the city."

Unmanned drones will give NATO commanders precision capabilities to strike targets that are "nestling up against crowded areas," said U.S. General James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"Now you have the intermixing of the lines, so it's very difficult to pick friend from foe," Cartwright said. "A vehicle like the Predator (drone) that can get down lower and get IDs helps us."

Their first deployment was slated for Thursday but it was called off because of bad weather.

Libya's deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaim slammed the deployment of drones.

"They will kill more civilians," Kaim told BBC radio.

"This is very sad ... they are claiming they are supporting democracy, (but) supporting democracy, I think, is helping people to sit together and talk together and have a serious dialogue for the future.

"It's for the Libyans" to decide their future "not by air strikes and sending money to the rebels," he said.

Senator McCain, a former Republican presidential candidate who has lobbied for greater U.S. involvement in a U.N.-mandated NATO air campaign aimed at preventing Gadhafi's forces from attacking civilians, met the rebel leadership in Benghazi Friday, an AFP reporter said.

He was mobbed when he paid a visit to the rebels' headquarters in the center of the city by a crowd of about 50 people, who chanted, "Libya free, Gadhafi go away -- thank you America, thank you Obama."

They also chanted, "The nasty Gadhafi has left and McCain came."

McCain, the highest-ranking U.S. politician to visit Libya's rebel-held east since a popular uprising against Gadhafi's rule began in mid-February, later urged the world to recognize the TNC as the legitimate voice of the Libyan people."

"They have earned this right," McCain told a press conference. "I met with all the key leaders of the Council and applaud their remarkable progress in their struggle for liberation."

Rebels have been pinned back by government troops for more than three weeks in eastern Libya and suffered heavy losses in Misrata.

Rebel leaders in the city have pleaded for foreign help, saying the air strikes are not enough to dislodge Gadhafi troops hiding in civilian areas and fighting street by street.

France, Italy and Britain have said they would send military personnel to eastern Libya, but only to advise the rebels on technical, logistical and organizational matters and not to engage in combat.

The French foreign ministry said Friday that the European Union is planning for a possible military intervention to bring aid to Misrata despite U.N. reservations.

"Faced with the worsening humanitarian situation, in particular in Misrata, the multinational general staff in Rome is continuing to plan for a military operation to support humanitarian aid," spokeswoman Christine Fages said.

"The European Union is ready to respond to any U.N. request."

Massive Libyan protests in February -- inspired by the revolts that toppled longtime autocrats in Egypt and Tunisia -- escalated into war when Gadhafi's troops fired on demonstrators and protesters seized several eastern towns.

The battle lines have been more or less static in recent weeks, however, as NATO air strikes have helped block Gadhafi's eastward advance but failed to give the poorly organized and lightly-armed rebels a decisive victory.

Gambia, meanwhile, said Friday it was recognizing the TNC as the only legitimate body representing Libyan interests, and expelling Tripoli's diplomats.

The west African state became the fourth country after France, Italy and Qatar to recognize the TNC.

The U.N. refugee agency said Friday that some 15,000 people had fled fighting in western Libya into Tunisia in the past two weeks and a much larger exodus was feared.

The mountainous region southwest of Tripoli contains a number of rebel-held towns which have come under attack from forces loyal to Gadhafi.

During the fighting, rebels managed on Thursday to overrun the Wazin post on the Tunisian border, marking the first headway by the insurgents against Gadhafi's forces in weeks.