International Criminal Court Issues Arrest Warrant For Mumar Khadafi

The International Criminal Court has handed down an arrest warrant for Libyan dictator Mumar Khadafi for crimes against humanity based on his brutal crackdown and ongoing fight against opposition groups in Libya. Also, warrants were issued for his son and another high ranking security official:

Judges at the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants on Monday for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and two of his most trusted lieutenants on war crimes charges.

The decision came after ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo had asked for arrest warrants for Mr. Gadhafi, his son Seif al-Islam and the head of Libyan intelligence, Abdullah al-Senussi.

Moreno-Ocampo says Gadhafi and his government carried out attacks against demonstrators, and ordered snipers to fire on civilians leaving mosques during the crackdown against rebels seeking Gadhafi's ouster.

Meanwhile, witnesses in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, say they have heard two loud explosions and could see smoke rising from the area near Gadhafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound Monday.

What's interesting is that the arrest warrants against Khadafi and his minions could easily be duplicated and issued against Syria's Bashar al Assad and his top thugs since they too are engaging in essentially the same exact crimes against humanity in Assad's ongoing brutal crackdown against protesters. The key difference is that NATO and the UN have not acted to thwart Assad, while the UN and NATO have launched military operations to prevent Khadafi from reasserting power across all of Libya.

African Union members continue expressing concern over the situation in Libya and that Khadafi has no role in the future of the country; the AU calls on both Khadafi and the transitional government to agree to an immediate cessation of military operations: