Word: libyans
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Somewhere over the western Mediterranean or southern France last Friday evening, a British Caledonian Airways jetliner heading northwest toward London crossed paths with a Libyan airliner flying southeast toward Tripoli. The planes were carrying home the second and final contingents of British and Libyan diplomats, thereby ending an eleven-day war of nerves between the two countries. It had begun a week earlier when an unidentified man fired shots through the windows of the Libyan embassy in London, killing a British policewoman and wounding eleven Libyan dissidents gathered outside in St. James's Square...
...week was a tense and painful one for the government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The British public was outraged by the murder of the policewoman, Constable Yvonne Fletcher, 25, and by the thought that the Libyan "diplomat" who had fired an automatic weapon into a crowd of anti-Gaddafi demonstrators should go unpunished. Even as the diplomats of the two countries were preparing to fly home on Friday afternoon, the funeral of Constable Fletcher was being held at the 13th century Salisbury Cathedral in southern England...
...Thatcher government had been concerned about the welfare and safety of the estimated 8,500 Britons in Libya. It also doubted the feasibility of bringing the Libyan gunman to trial, since in the end he could probably claim diplomatic immunity. Finally, there was the fear that the Libyans might attempt a desperate act of terrorism, possibly by planting a time bomb in their vacated London embassy. The feelings of exasperation were summarized by a high-ranking British official: "We want them...
...effectively partitioned between the government and the rebels, but Idriss Deby, 27, commander of the Chad army, has no intention of letting things remain that way. Says Deby, a lean, ascetic man with samurai eyes: "Despite all kinds of shortages, we have been able to hold both the Libyan army and the rebels at bay." Nobody knows exactly how many men the Chad army has. The French say 7,000; the Chadians say "many, many." Its best fighters are the Goran, tribesmen from the northern district of Tibetsi, a starkly beautiful area of volcanic massifs, gorges and craters that...
...Deby. Government forces ambushed an enemy column of 25 Toyotas and other vehicles. "We trapped the enemy and took 256 prisoners and all the weapons we needed," says the lieutenant. "You see, there is no need for the French to take part in the fighting. But it is those Libyan planes that break up our troop concentrations after every victory...