West’s strikes on Libya hit Arab League criticism

TRIPOLI,  (Reuters) – Western forces pounded Libya’s  air defences and patrolled its skies today, but their day-old  intervention hit a serious diplomatic setback as the Arab League  chief condemned the “bombardment of civilians”.
As European and U.S. forces unleashed warplanes and cruise  missiles against Muammar Gaddafi’s air defences and armour, the  Libyan leader said the air strikes amounted to terrorism and  vowed to fight to the death.
While his eastern forces fled from the outskirts of Benghazi  in the face of the allied air attacks, Gaddafi sent tanks into  Misrata, the last rebel city in western Libya. Among the densely  packed houses they were less vulnerable to attack from the air  without the risk of killing innocent civilians.

A tank belonging to forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi explodes after an air strike by coalition forces, along a road between Benghazi and Ajdabiyah March 20, 2011. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic
A tank belonging to forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi explodes after an air strike by coalition forces, along a road between Benghazi and Ajdabiyah March 20, 2011. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic

Sixty-four people were killed in the Western bombardment  overnight, a Libyan government health official said, but it was  impossible to verify the report as government minders refused to  take reporters in Tripoli to the sites of the bombings.
Arab League chief Amr Moussa called for an emergency meeting  of the group of 22 states to discuss Libya. He requested a  report into the bombardment which he said had “led to the deaths  and injuries of many Libyan civilians”.

Vehicles belonging to forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi explode after an air strike by coalition forces, along a road between Benghazi and Ajdabiyah March 20, 2011. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic
Vehicles belonging to forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi explode after an air strike by coalition forces, along a road between Benghazi and Ajdabiyah March 20, 2011. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic

“What is happening in Libya differs from the aim of imposing  a no-fly zone, and what we want is the protection of civilians  and not the bombardment of more civilians,” Egypt’s official  state news agency quoted Moussa as saying.
Arab backing for a no-fly zone provided crucial underpinning  for the passage of the U.N. Security Council resolution last  week that paved the way for Western action to stop Gaddafi  killing civilians as he fights an uprising against his rule.

DIFFICULT CAMPAIGN
The intervention is the biggest against an Arab country  since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Withdrawal of Arab support  would make it much harder to pursue what some defence analysts  say could in any case be a difficult, open-ended campaign with  an uncertain outcome.
A senior U.S. official rebuffed Moussa’s comments.

Rebels celebrate on a street in Benghazi March 20, 2011. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem
Rebels celebrate on a street in Benghazi March 20, 2011. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem

“The resolution endorsed by Arabs and UNSC (the United  Nations Security Council) included ‘all necessary measures’ to  protect civilians, which we made very clear includes, but goes  beyond, a no-fly zone,” the official told Reuters during a visit  by President Barack Obama to Rio de Janeiro.
The U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike  Mullen, said the no-fly zone was effectively in place. But he  told CBS the endgame of military action was “very uncertain” and  acknowledged it could end in a stalemate with Gaddafi.
Mullen said he had seen no reports of civilian casualties  from the Western strikes. But Russia said there had been such  casualties and called on Britain, France and the United States  to halt the “non-selective use of force”.
Western intervention, after weeks of diplomatic wrangling,  was welcomed with a mix of apprehension and relief in Benghazi  where the main hospital was filled with men, women and children  wounded in Saturday’s assault on the city by Gaddafi’s forces.
“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.

SMOULDERING TANKS
Outside the eastern city, the advance by Gaddafi’s troops  was stopped in its tracks with smouldering, shattered tanks and  troop carriers littering the main road. The charred bodies of at  least 14 government soldiers lay scattered in the desert.
“Gaddafi is like a chicken and the coalition is plucking his  feathers so he can’t fly. The revolutionaries will slit his  neck,” said Fathi Bin Saud, a 52-year-old rebel carrying a  rocket-propelled grenade launcher, surveying the devastation.
Insurgents, fighting a month-old uprising to end Gaddafi’s  41 years in power, advanced south from Benghazi towards the  strategic junction at Ajdabiyah which they lost last week.
But in Misrata, east of Tripoli, residents said government  tanks and snipers had entered the centre of the city after a  base outside it had been hit by Western air strikes.  “Two people were killed so far today by snipers. They  (snipers) are still on the rooftops. They are backed with four  tanks, which have been patrolling the town. It’s getting very  difficult for people to come out,” one Misrata resident, called  Sami, told Reuters by telephone.
“There are also boats encircling the port and preventing aid  from reaching the town.”
Abdelbasset, a spokesman for the rebels in Misrata, told  Reuters: “There is fighting between the rebels and Gaddafi’s  forces. Their tanks are in the centre of Misrata … There are  so many casualties we cannot count them.”

QATAR SENDING PLANES
French planes fired the first shots of the intervention on  Saturday, destroying tanks and armoured vehicles near Benghazi.  The eastern city is the cradle of the anti-Gaddafi revolt that  started last month, inspired by Arab uprisings that toppled the  leaders of Tunisia and Egypt.   France sent an aircraft carrier towards Libya and its planes  were over the country again today, defence officials said.  Britain said its planes had targeted Libya’s air defences mainly  around the capital Tripoli.
U.S. and British warships and submarines launched 110  Tomahawk missiles overnight against air defences around the  capital Tripoli and Misrata, U.S. military officials said.
They said U.S. forces and planes were working with Britain,  France, Canada and Italy in operation “Odyssey Dawn”. Four  Danish fighter planes took off from a base in Italy, apparently  to join the mission over Libya.
Aircraft from other countries, including Qatar, were also  moving near Libya to participate in the operation, Mullen said.
Explosions and heavy anti-aircraft fire rattled Tripoli in  the early hours of Sunday. Defiant cries of “Allahu Akbar” (God  is Greatest) 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.
The mood in Tripoli turned markedly anti-Western, and crowds  shouted defiant slogans and shot in the air.