WASHINGTON/BRASILIA/PARIS – A coalition of the United States and four other nations launched military action against Libya on Saturday, officials said, as the West tries to force Muammar Gaddafi from power.
A US official told reporters on condition of anonymity that a coalition including the United States, France, Britain, Canada and Italy had begun launching strikes on Libya designed to cripple Gaddafi’s air defenses. At least some Arab nations are expected to join the coalition later, the official said.
A second US official said missiles were launched from a warship against Libyan targets. In Washington, a top military officer said US and British forces have fired at least 110 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Gaddafi’s air defense sites. French warplanes carried out four air strikes in Libya Saturday, destroying several armoured vehicles of forces loyal to strongman Moamer Kadhafi, the French military said.
US forces and planes will take part in the operation, called “Odyssey Dawn” that will mainly target air defenses around the Libyan cities of Tripoli and Misrata.
Some 25 coalition ships, including three US submarines armed with Tomahawk missiles, are stationed in the Mediterranean, a military slide showed. Five US surveillance planes are also in the area, it showed.
Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama said no US ground troops will be sent into Libya after announcing he authorised the cruise missile strikes launched minutes earlier against Gaddafi’s forces. A Libyan army spokesman said on state television that Western forces had bombed fuel tanks feeding the rebel-held city of Misrata, east of Tripoli.
Separately, a high-level African Union panel on the Libyan crisis rejected “any kind of foreign military intervention” in the north African country, Mauritanian President Ould Abdel Aziz said. The situation in Libya “demands urgent action so an African solution (can be found) to the very serious crisis which this sister nation is going through”, said Abdel Aziz.
Meanwhile, Libya’s state-run TV claimed that one French jetfighter was downed in retaliation near Tripoli.
