Libya: The US, Britain and France pounded Libya with Tomahawk missiles and air strikes into the early hours of Sunday, sparking fury from Moamer Kadhafi who declared the Mediterranean to be a “battlefield.”
In a dramatic show of force, US warships and a British submarine fired at least 110 Tomahawk cruise missiles into Libya Saturday against strongman Moamer Kadhafi’s anti-aircraft missiles and radar, the US military said.
Admiral William Gortney told reporters at the Pentagon that the cruise missiles “struck more than 20 integrated air defence systems and other air defence facilities ashore.”
An AFP correspondent said bombs were dropped early Sunday near Bab al-Aziziyah, the Tripoli headquarters of strongman Moamer Kadhafi, prompting barrages of anti-aircraft fire from Libyan forces. State television had earlier said hundreds of people had gathered to serve as human shields at Bab al-Aziziyah and at the capital’s international airport.
A Libyan official told AFP that at least 48 people had died in the assaults, which began with a strike at 1645 GMT Saturday by a French warplane on a vehicle the French military said belonged to pro-Kadhafi forces.Libyan state media said that Western warplanes bombed civilian targets in Tripoli, causing casualties while an army spokesman said strikes also hit fuel tanks feeding the rebel-held city of Misrata, east of Tripoli.
Read moreKadhafi, in a brief audio message broadcast on state television, fiercely denounced the attacks as a “barbaric, unjustified Crusaders’ aggression.”
He vowed retaliatory strikes on military and civilian targets in the Mediterranean, which he said had been turned into a “real battlefield.”
“Now the arms depots have been opened and all the Libyan people are being armed,” to fight against Western forces, the veteran leader warned. Libya’s Foreign Ministry said that in the wake of the attacks, it regarded as invalid a UN resolution ordering a ceasefire by its forces and demanded an urgent meeting of the Security Council.
The attacks on Libya “threatens international peace and security,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
“Libya demands an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council after the French-American-British aggression against Libya, an independent state member of the United Nations,” the statement said.
On Thursday, the Security Council passed Resolution 1973, which authorized the use of “all necessary means” to protect civilians and enforce a ceasefire and no-fly zone against strongman Moamer Kadhafi’s forces.
The following day, Libya declared a ceasefire in its battle to crush an armed revolt against Kadhafi’s regime which began on February 15 and said it had grounded its warplanes.
Courtesy - Daily News (Tripoli, Sunday, AFP)
