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Clinton offers Libya new aid on trip to Tripoli

By Alexandra Zaviswriter 
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Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday offered Libya’s provisional government a wide range of new assistance during an unannounced visit to the capital, Tripoli.

The aid package includes help treating the war wounded and securing large numbers of weapons, which the Obama administration fears could fall into the hands of militants, State Department officials say.

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Clinton also raised a number of concerns, including the need to prevent retaliation against supporters of ousted leader Moammar Kadafi and bring militias that fought in the uprising under central control. Some groups have resisted disarming and submitting to the authority of civilians.

“Now the hard part begins,” Clinton said as she headed into a meeting with Libya’s transitional leaders, according to news reports.

Clinton is the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Libya since Kadafi was unseated in August.

“I am proud to stand here on the soil of a free Libya,” she was quoted as saying.

But she expressed concern that Kadafi could cause trouble for the country while he remains at large.

“We hope he can be captured or killed soon so that you don’t have to fear him any longer,” Clinton reportedly said.

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-- Alexandra Zavis in Los Angeles

World Now
Alexandra Zavis

Alexandra Zavis is a former writer and editor on the Los Angeles Times’ Foreign Desk who has reported from more than 40 countries. She spent a decade with the Associated Press, covering Liberia, Sierra Leone, Congo, Sudan, Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan, among other war-torn places. After joining The Times in 2006, she has served as a Baghdad correspondent and as a California reporter covering poverty and veterans issues. She is a recipient of the American Academy of Diplomacy’s Arthur Ross Award for distinguished reporting on foreign affairs and was part of teams of reporters awarded the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi Award for foreign correspondence and APME’s International Perspective Award. She is a graduate of Oxford University and City University in London.

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