Nicolas Sarkozy, David Cameron arrive in Libya

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron arrived in Tripoli on Thursday to meet with Libya's new interim leaders.

The leaders will meet with National Transitional Council head Mustafa Abdul Jalil and Mahmoud Jibril, chairman and head of international affairs of the NTC.

It was the first visit by the two leaders to Tripoli since the city fell, and they arrived under heavy security.

The two leaders were key players in the NATO bombing campaign that aided the NTC in toppling Gadhafi.

Their visit came as families fled Bani Walid, one of Gadhafi's last strongholds, ahead of a Thursday night deadline to leave the besieged city.

Libya's interim leaders gave residents in Bani Walid a 48-hour notice to leave as it dispatched hundreds of fighters to reinforce troops struggling to take the loyalist stronghold.

Fighters were regrouping on the outskirts of Bani Walid -- one of three cities firmly in the hands of Gadhafi loyalists -- after encountering stiff resistance during a weekend assault. The fighting began after weeks of negotiations to surrender the city broke down.

Residents were given the ultimatum late Tuesday, Abdulrahman Busin, a spokesman for the National Transitional Council, told CNN. The deadline warns civilians to leave the city before a planned offensive by NTC forces.

Forces also have been sent to reinforce troops outside Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte and Sabha, another stronghold in the western part of the country.

At a checkpoint about nine miles outside Bani Walid, families fleeing the city Wednesday complained about a shortage of water and food. They said they no longer felt safe in the city, which has been under siege by NTC forces for weeks.

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is also expected to visit Tripoli this week.

Erdogan's anticipated visit follows one a day earlier by Jeffrey Feltman, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs.

"I am encouraged by these individuals and these organizations' efforts," Feltman said following meetings with Jalil and Jibril.

In New York, a draft Security Council resolution circulated Wednesday that would establish a United Nations Support Mission in Libya under the leadership of a special representative of the secretary-general for an initial period of three months.

According to the draft, the mission's mandate would be to help Libya extend state authority, protect human rights, support justice and take steps needed to get the nation back on its feet economically. A vote on the proposal is expected within a few days.

As Libya's new leaders plotted a course for the country, a man identifying himself as Gadhafi's spokesman warned of "a holy struggle for years."

"Do not think that the battle is over," a man identifying himself as Musa Ibrahim said in a purported live phone call to Syrian-based al-Rai TV.

Al-Rai, a privately owned station, has taken over for Libyan state media in filling the role of Gadhafi's mouthpiece.

On Wednesday, al-Rai read a statement purportedly from Gadhafi that called for a halt to the NTC assault and NATO bombing of his birthplace of Sirte.

"The terrorism and aggression of NATO in Sirte cannot be described and has no other similarity in the past or in the history of wars," the statement said.

Gadhafi's whereabouts remain unknown, though some of his relatives have fled to neighboring Algeria and Niger.

Syrian Forces Seal Off Port City of Latakia

Syria’s military closed off access to the Mediterranean port of Latakia by land and sea and stormed the suburbs of the city of Homs in an effort to prevent further anti-government protests, activists said.

Unrest has died down in Latakia, with troops restricting movement in and out of the city, which was overtaken by soldiers backed by tanks and warships this week, Mahmoud Merhi, head of the Arab Organization for Human Rights, said today by phone from Damascus, the capital. As many as 50 people have died since the sea blockade began Aug. 14, he said. The severing of communication links with Latakia has made it difficult to learn whether the number killed by security forces has risen, he said.

In Homs, where the government crackdown killed at least 24 demonstrators on Aug. 8, soldiers stormed a residential area of a suburb, killing as many as 15, Merhi said. Protesters also returned to the streets in Dera’a, and in the capital, Damascus.

More than 2,400 people have been killed since the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government began in March, according to Merhi and Ammar Qurabi of the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria. The United Nations put the toll at about 2,000. The U.S. State Department estimated that the government has detained more than 30,000 people. Protests began after demonstrations toppled the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt, and destabilized Libya.

International pressure on the government is increasing, with U.S. President Barack Obama, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah and British Prime Minister David Cameron calling on Syria to stop attacking its people. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Aug. 12 urged nations doing business with Syria to cut off trade and arms sales. Canada is extending sanctions on Assad’s regime.

The UN agency that helps Palestinian refugees said a number of Palestinians were killed as the security forces fired at a refugee camp in Latakia. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East called upon the authorities to exercise the “utmost restraint in accordance with international law,” according to a statement on its website.

Assad, who came to power in 2000, has blamed the protests on foreign-inspired plots. More than 500 members of the security forces have died since the unrest began, the government said.

Many of Assad’s top officials are from the Alawite branch of Islam, an offshoot of Shiism, while most of Syria’s population is Sunni Muslim.

The U.S. is concerned about the prospect of sectarian violence in Syria and the chance it will spark more instability, a U.S. official said last week. The Obama administration may call on Assad soon to step down, said the official, who asked not to be identified because the administration was still discussing the issue.