Continued from page 1 – The volleys erupted at around 1900 GMT near the Bab el-Aziziya barracks in the south of Tripoli, the correspondent said.
Meanwhile, while the US-French-British core stayed solid, cracks started to show in the military coalition hastily assembled to take action on Libya as the Arab League and some EU countries wavered. Criticism of the operation came swiftly after French jets took to the skies.
Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa caused concerns on Sunday when he said the airstrikes went beyond the scope of the resolution to implement a no-fly zone and said he was concerned about civilians being hurt in bombing.
But after a meeting with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in Cairo on Monday, Mussa got back behind the military strikes. However the Arab League’s concerns seemed to have left their mark when European Union foreign ministers gathered for talks in Brussels on Monday.
Germany, which abstained in the Security Council vote when the resolution was passed on Thursday, said Mussa’s criticism showed that Berlin had been right to fear military intervention.
Italy said its offer to contribute eight Tornado jets to the military operation was accompanied by concerns that the allied campaign “shouldn’t be a war” on Libya. The United Arab Emirates said its involvement in Libya was limited to humanitarian assistance, despite reports that it too would send warplanes.
