Like what? Carpetbomb the place?

Alan Cowell and Rod Nordland have an article in The New York Times about Libya:

France and Britain urged NATO to intensify airstrikes against Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi’s forces, and called on the alliance to do more to shield noncombatants from loyalist attacks. The remarks could well embolden the rebels, who have proved unable to hold on to terrain captured from loyalist forces in weeks of advances and retreats along the coastal highway leading westward from the insurgents’ redoubts in eastern Libya.
The comments by William Hague, the British foreign secretary, and Alain Juppé, the French foreign minister, also appeared to signal a rift within the alliance only eight days after it assumed command from the United States for the air campaign over Libya.
NATO rejected the French and British criticism. “NATO is conducting its military operations in Libya with vigor within the current mandate. The pace of the operations is determined by the need to protect the population,” it said, according to Reuters.
While the pace of NATO air attacks appeared to pick up in the battleground between Ajdabiya and the oil town of Brega in eastern Libya, rebel leaders have complained bitterly of a lull that seemed to coincide with the handoff of responsibility from the allied coalition to NATO, about ten days ago. NATO pilots were also involved in two friendly-fire incidents that killed well over a dozen rebel fighters.
NATO has been criticized for a go-slow approach in the rebel-held western city of Misurata, which has fallen into desperate straits as a weeks-long siege by pro-Qaddafi forces has stretched thin its stocks of food, water and medical supplies. The city’s port, a vital lifeline that was opened in the initial Western air attacks, was choked off by Colonel Qaddafi’s forces in the days after NATO took over. The port has since reopened, but the city remains under attack by tanks, artillery, and snipers, and rebel leaders are complaining that NATO is failing there in its central objective of protecting civilians.
The French and British comments coincided with a swirl of diplomatic activity as the battlefield situation offered neither the rebels nor their adversaries any immediate prospect of a definitive outcome.
A spokesman for Libyan rebels rejected any suggestion of talks with Moussa Koussa, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief who defected to Britain, but left there for Qatar. Qatar is hosting a meeting of countries that have expressed support for the Libyan rebels, and British officials announced that Mr. Koussa was headed there, presumably to take a role in trying to mediate between the rebels and the Qaddafi government. “We are sending a delegation to Doha solely to meet with the contact group, but it’s not part of the agenda to meet with Mr. Koussa,” said Abdul Hafeed Ghoga, the spokesman for the National Transitional Council, at a news conference here. “It’s not something rejected or accepted.” The council is the rebel’s representative body. Mr. Ghoga, noting the rebels rejection of an African Union delegation’s request to negotiate a cease-fire during a visit to Benghazi, said that the Qaddafi loyalists had shelled Misurata throughout delegation’s visit, proving their lack of good faith. The rebels have maintained steadfastly that they will not enter negotiations until Colonel Qaddafi and his sons relinquish power.
Mustafa Ghereini, another spokesman for the transitional council, declined to say whether the Libyan rebels had received any offers of military assistance from Western countries. Asked if he was encouraged by their response to such requests, he said, “That’s a national security matter. But the fact that Qaddafi has not been able to take Misurata, with all his might, is encouraging to us,” he said.
At the same news conference, Suleiman Fortia, the representative on the council from Misurata, gave a detailed description of the desperation there. Mr. Fortia, who left Misurata by sea two days ago to come to the rebel capital, said that a thousand people had been killed in attacks by loyalist forces, which have surrounded the city and occupied portions of it, with thousands more wounded. He offered no verification for those figures. In addition, he said, electricity, fuel, and water had been cut off.
Human Rights Watch quoted doctors in hospitals in Misurata as saying they had seen at least 250 dead, but that the true number was much higher. “The Libyan government’s near-siege of Misurata has not prevented reports of serious abuses getting out,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “We’ve heard disturbing accounts of shelling and shooting at a clinic and in populated areas, killing civilians where no battle was raging.” Human Rights Watch quoted a doctor at the Misurata Polyclinic, Muhammed el-Fortia, as saying that loyalist forces had fired mortar rounds and sniper shots at the hospital, forcing its evacuation. Misurata is Libya’s third largest city and the largest place in western Libya still under rebel control.
The meeting in Doha was expected to discuss military aid to the Libyan rebels. Qatar, along with France and Italy, has recognized the rebels as the legitimate government of Libya. In addition, the rebels said they have received offers of assistance from thirty other countries that have not formally recognized them, including the United States and Britain.
Mr. Koussa’s defection to Britain came as a surprise, and he was questioned by investigators of the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland. Family members of victims of that bombing reacted with anger when they learned that Britain had allowed him to go to Doha. A spokeswoman for the British Foreign Office, speaking on the condition of anonymity under departmental rules, said that Mr. Koussa had been able to leave because he was “a free individual, who can travel to and from Britain as he wishes”— a remark that seemed to suggest he was not facing any imminent restriction related to the Lockerbie inquiry.
“I ask everybody to avoid taking Libya into a civil war. This would lead to so much blood and Libya would be a new Somalia,” Mr. Koussa said in his statement, according to a translation from Arabic provided by the BBC. “The solution in Libya will come from the Libyans themselves, and through discussion and democratic dialogue.” His remarks may have indicated that he was seeking to position himself for a position in a successor government in Libya. The French and British calls for intensified aerial bombardment came after the rebels in eastern Libya rejected cease-fire proposals from a high-ranking African Union delegation, saying the plan did not provide for Colonel Qaddafi, his sons, and his closest aides to leave the country.
Arriving for talks in Luxembourg with other European leaders, Mr. Hague said the allies had to “maintain and intensify” their efforts through NATO, noting that Britain had already deployed extra ground attack aircraft. “Of course, it would be welcome if other countries also did the same,” he said. Like the Libyan rebels and the Obama administration, Mr. Hague urged Colonel Qaddafi to go. “Any viable future for Libya involves the departure of Colonel Qaddafi,” he said.
Mr. Juppé declared in an earlier radio interview: “NATO must play its role in full. It wanted to take the operational lead, we accepted that,” he said. “It must play its role today which means preventing Qaddafi from using heavy weapons to bomb populations.” Currently, he said, the intensity of the air campaign was “not enough”.
The British and French comments came after just as rebels seeking cover to advance against Colonel Qaddafi’s forces complained that NATO was not providing sufficient air support. In the eastern city of Ajdabiya, a rebel fighter, Khaled Mohammed, said the westernmost rebel positions were about 25 miles west of the city. He said that under orders from rebel commanders, the fighters were not advancing beyond that point to lessen the chances that NATO warplanes would mistakenly bomb them.

Rico says the photo caption says, graphically: "A Libyan rebel, at left, being shot in the head during a firefight." Ouch...