Western forces hit targets along the Libyan coast on
Saturday, using strikes from air and sea to force Muammar Gaddafi's
troops to cease fire and end attacks on civilians.
* U.S. official says coalition targeting air defences
* French plane fires the first shots
* Libyan TV says 48 killed, 150 wounded in air strikes
* Coalition includes Britain, U.S., France, Italy, Canada
Libyan state television said 48 people had been killed and 150
wounded in the allied air strikes. It also said there had been a fresh
wave of strikes on Tripoli early on Sunday.
There was no way to independently verify the claims.
CBS News on its website said on Sunday that three U.S. B-2 stealth
bombers had dropped 40 bombs on a "major Libyan airfield" that was not
further identified. A Pentagon spokesman said he had no information
about such an attack.
French planes fired the first shots in what is the biggest
international military intervention in the Arab world since the 2003
invasion of Iraq, destroying tanks and armoured vehicles in the region
of the rebels' eastern stronghold, Benghazi.
Hours later, U.S. and British warships and submarines launched 110
Tomahawk missiles against air defences around the capital Tripoli and
the western city of Misrata, which has been besieged by Gaddafi's
forces, U.S. military officials said.
They said U.S. forces and planes were working with Britain, France, Canada and Italy in operation "Odyssey Dawn".
Gaddafi called it "colonial, crusader" aggression.
"It is now necessary to open the stores and arm all the masses with
all types of weapons to defend the independence, unity and honour of
Libya," he said in an audio message broadcast on state television hours
after the strikes began.
China and Russia, which abstained in the U.N. Security Council vote
last week endorsing intervention, expressed regret at the military
action. China's Foreign Ministry said it hoped the conflict would not
lead to a greater loss of civilian life.
Explosions and heavy anti-aircraft fire rattled Tripoli in the early
hours of Sunday. The shooting was followed by defiant shouts of "Allahu
Akbar" that echoed around the city centre.
Libyan state television showed footage from an unidentified hospital
of what it called victims of the "colonial enemy". Ten bodies were
wrapped up in white and blue bed sheets, and several people were
wounded, one of them badly, the television said.
Tripoli residents said they had heard an explosion near the eastern
Tajoura district, while in Misrata they said strikes had targeted an
airbase used by Gaddafi's forces.
A Reuters witness in the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi
reported loud explosions and anti-aircraft fire, but it was unclear
which side was shooting.
The intervention, after weeks of diplomatic wrangling, was welcomed in Benghazi with a mix of apprehension and relief.
"We think this will end Gaddafi's rule. Libyans will never forget
France's stand with them. If it weren't for them, then Benghazi would
have been overrun tonight," said Iyad Ali, 37.
"We salute France, Britain, the United States and the Arab countries
for standing with Libya. But we think Gaddafi will take out his anger on
civilians. So the West has to hit him hard," said civil servant Khalid
al-Ghurfaly, 38.
GADDAFI SEEN LOSING GRIP ON LIBYA
The strikes, launched from some 25 ships, including three U.S.
submarines, in the Mediterranean, followed a meeting in Paris of Western
and Arab leaders backing the intervention.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said participants had agreed to use
"all necessary means, especially military" to enforce the Security
Council resolution calling for an end to attacks on civilians.
"Colonel Gaddafi has made this happen," British Prime Minister David
Cameron told reporters after the meeting. "We cannot allow the slaughter
of civilians to continue."
Some analysts have questioned the strategy for the military
intervention, fearing Western forces might be sucked into a long civil
war despite a U.S. insistence -- repeated on Saturday -- that it has no
plans to send ground troops into Libya.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper suggested that outside powers
hoped their intervention would be enough to turn the tide against
Gaddafi and allow Libyans to force him out.
"It is our belief that if Mr. Gaddafi loses the capacity to enforce
his will through vastly superior armed forces, he simply will not be
able to sustain his grip on the country."
But analysts have questioned what Western powers will do if the
Libyan leader digs in, especially since they do not believe they would
be satisfied with a de facto partition which left rebels in the east and
Gaddafi running a rump state in the west.
One participant at the Paris meeting said Clinton and others had
stressed Libya should not be split in two. And on Friday, Obama
specifically called on Gaddafi's forces to pull back from the western
cities of Zawiyah and Misrata as well from the east.
"It's going to be far less straightforward if Gaddafi starts to move
troops into the cities which is what he has been trying to do for the
past 24 hours," said Marko Papic at the STRATFOR global intelligence
group.
"Once he does that it becomes a little bit more of an urban combat
environment and at that point it's going to be difficult to use air
power from 15,000 feet to neutralize that."
The Libyan government has blamed rebels, who it says belong to al Qaeda, for breaking a ceasefire it announced on Friday.
In Tripoli, several thousand people gathered at the Bab al-Aziziyah
palace, Gaddafi's compound bombed by U.S. warplanes in 1986, to show
their support.
"There are 5,000 tribesmen that are preparing to come here to fight
with our leader. They better not try to attack our country," said farmer
Mahmoud el-Mansouri.
"We will open up Libya's deserts and allow Africans to flood to Europe to blow themselves up as suicide bombers."
U.S. SAYS NOT LEADING INTERVENTION
France and Britain have taken a lead role in pushing for
international intervention in Libya and the United States -- after
embarking on wars in Afghanistan and Iraq -- has been at pains to stress
it is supporting, not leading, the operation.
In announcing the missile strikes, which came eight years to the day
after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Obama said the effort was
intended to protect the Libyan people.
"Today I authorised the armed forces of the United States to begin a
limited action in Libya in support of an international effort to protect
Libyan civilians," Obama told reporters in Brasilia, where he had begun
a five-day tour of Latin America.
He said U.S. troops were acting in support of allies, who would lead
the enforcement of a no-fly zone to stop Gaddafi's attacks on rebels.
"As I said yesterday, we will not, I repeat, we will not deploy any U.S.
troops on the ground," Obama said.
But despite Washington's determination to stress its limited role,
Vice Admiral Bill Gortney, director of the U.S. military's Joint Staff,
said the strikes were only a first phase.
Earlier, hundreds of cars with refugees fled Benghazi towards the
Egyptian border after the city came under a bombardment from Gaddafi's
forces the previous night. One family of 13 women from a grandmother to
small children, rested at a roadside hotel.
"I'm here because when the bombing started last night my children
were vomiting from fear," said one of them, a doctor. "All I want to do
is get my family to a safe place and then get back to Benghazi to help.
My husband is still there."
Allied warplanes in a coalition led by France and backed by Arab
nations have gone into action to stop Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's
forces attacking the rebel-held city of Benghazi.
U.S. and British ships and submarines fired more than 110 Tomahawk
cruise missiles at Libyan targets to take out their air defences,
although no U.S. aircraft were flying over Libya.
Following are assets that are being used, or that could be used, in
action against Muammar Gaddafi's troops and those belonging to his
military:
FRANCE
France has some 20 fighter jets deployed in an initial operation in
Libya, including Rafale multirole war planes, Mirage fighter jets and at
least one AWACS surveillance aircraft. The target area involved is an
area 62-by-93 miles (100 km by 150 km) around the rebel-controlled city
of Benghazi.
The French operation is being run out of the Solenzara air base in
the Mediterranean island of Corsica, around an hour's flight from Libya
in a fighter jet.
France's Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier is on the French
Mediterranean coast and will head to Libya around midday on Sunday. It
could reach the Libyan coast by late Monday carrying 15 fighter jets.
Its battle group includes three frigates, a fuel-supply ship and an
attack submarine.
France also has air force bases near the Mediterranean towns of
Marseille and Istres, about an hour and a half from Libya. Airborne
refuelling tanker aircraft were ready on Friday to deploy from Istres.
France rejoined NATO's military command in 2009, reversing four decades of self-imposed exile
BRITAIN
Britain said it participated in a coordinated strike on Saturday
against Libyan air defence systems using Tomahawk missiles launched from
one of its Trafalgar-class submarines. The Ministry of Defence (MoD)
also confirmed Stormshadow missiles were launched from a number of
Tornado GR4 jets flown from a Royal Air Force base 3,000 miles (4,800
km) away in the eastern county of Norfolk in England. It said the
operation was supported by VC10 and Tristar air-to-air refuelling
aircraft as well as E3D Sentry and Sentinel surveillance aircraft. The
MoD said Typhoon jets were also standing by to provide support.
Britain has two frigates off the Libyan coast, HMS Cumberland and HMS
Westminster, which also could be called on to support operations.
Government sources earlier said destroyers could be deployed.
UNITED STATES
The United States started a "limited military action" in Libya
several hours after France that included launching strikes along the
Libyan coast that would target Libyan air defences.
The U.S. military deployed planes, cruise missiles and electronic attacks, the Pentagon said.
A defence official said the U.S. Navy has three submarines outfitted
with Tomahawk missiles in the Mediterranean ready to participate,
including attack submarines Newport News and the Providence. They were
joined by two Navy ships.
Tomahawk missiles can cripple aircraft or anti-aircraft defences in a no-fly operation.
In all, the U.S. Navy has five combat ships in the Mediterranean,
including at least one guided-missile destroyer, but there are no U.S.
aircraft carriers close to Libya.
The USS Enterprise, which recently was stationed in the Red Sea, has
been moved eastwards, away from Libya, to join the USS Carl Vinson, in
the Arabian Sea to support Afghanistan operations.
Aviano, south of the Alps in Italy, is the region's only U.S. air
base with aircraft assigned to it -- 42 F-16s. The Pentagon has not
discussed the positioning of other planes in the region. The United
States has a range of Mediterranean military bases and installations in
Italy, Greece, Spain and Turkey.
CANADA
Canada's HMCS Charlottetown warship has joined naval actions,
including a naval blockade, taking place off Libya, Prime Minister
Stephen Harper told reporters.
Canadian fighter jets have reached the region but need another day or
two of preparation before they can join the mission, a Canadian
government spokesman said.
ITALY
Italy has deployed dozens of combat aircraft at its base at Trapani,
in western Sicily in readiness for possible involvement in airstrikes on
Libya.
Tornado fighters that can be used to destroy enemy air defences and
radar as well as F-16s and Eurofighters used for air-to-air defence have
been moved to Trapani from bases in Piacenza in northern Italy, Gioia
del Colle in Apulia.
Italy has offered the use of a NATO base near Naples for joint
command centre for the joint operation, and could participate later on
in military activities, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said.
Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa said in all seven bases in Italy --
at Amendola, Gioia del Colle, Sigonella, Aviano, Trapani, Decimomannu
and Pantelleria -- were available and some allies had asked to use them.
Five are on the southern mainland or Sicily, making them some of the closest available bases to Libya.
3:48 PM
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