Allies Say Attacks Ground Libya Air Force, Debate New Steps
A Libyan rebel waves the rebellion flag as he stands over wrecked military vehicles hit by French warplanes on March 20, 2011. Photographer: Patrick Baz/AFP/Getty Images
March 21 (Bloomberg) -- Richard Falkenrath, a principal at the Chertoff Group and a Bloomberg Television contributing editor, discusses the outlook for international military intervention in Libya. Falkenrath talks with Erik Schatzker on Bloomberg Television's "InsideTrack." (Source: Bloomberg)
Allied officials said missile and aircraft strikes have grounded Muammar Qaddafi’s air force as members of the coalition debated how far they can take military action against his regime.
U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague today refused to rule out the possibility of deploying special forces, saying only that there would be no occupation of Libya. Arab League Secretary-General Amre Moussa said in Cairo that protecting civilians must be a priority.
Qaddafi’s forces last week had closed in on the rebel stronghold of Benghazi after recapturing almost all the towns they lost during the uprising. The coalition - which includes the U.S., the U.K. and France -- has since fired Tomahawk cruise missiles at his anti-aircraft systems and airfields while allied jets patrol the North African country’s skies. The wreckage of at least seven pro-Qaddafi tanks could be seen Sunday smoldering in a field south of Benghazi, the Associated Press reported.
“There are as many strategies as there are coalition members,” Shashank Joshi, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, said on Bloomberg television. “Britain and France want to push Qaddafi from power quickly and see a strategic danger in him hanging on, whereas America has really been burned by its experience in Iraq and is concerned about the potentially dangerous effects of rapid regime change.”
‘Every Inch’
The Libyan leader has denounced the coalition as “the party of Satan” and vowed to “fight for every inch of our land.” U.S. Vice AdmiralBill Gortney told reporters at the Pentagon yesterday that Libya’s military had not flown an aircraft in two days.
Crude oil for April delivery gained as much as $2.28 to $103.35 a barrel, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and was at $102.81 at 12:23 London time.
The coalition ordered Qaddafi to pull his forces back from major cities after weeks of fighting that has left hundreds dead in the bloodiest of the popular uprisings to have swept the Middle East this year.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin criticized the allied attacks as “medieval.”
“The Libyan regime doesn’t meet any democratic criteria, that is clear,” Putin said today. “But that doesn’t mean that you can intervene in a political, even military conflict by backing one side.” Russia abstained during the vote on the UN resolution authorizing the no-fly zone.
Cruise Missile
A cruise missile smashed into Qaddafi’s residential compound, knocking down half of a three-story administrative building, the AP reported. It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties, the agency said.
“I’m not going to get drawn into the detail of who might be targeted because I don’t think it is right,” U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague told BBC Radio 4’s “Today” program when asked if the UN resolution barred attacks on Qaddafi. “I don’t think in a conflict and the enforcement of the UN resolution, to give people all the details of what might or might not be targeted is wise.”
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said yesterday the campaign should be limited to the terms of the resolution rather than being broadened to target Qaddafi directly.
The chief of Britain’s defense staff, General David Richards, said Qaddafi can’t be directly targeted.
‘Discuss Further’
“It’s not allowed under the UN resolution and it’s not something I want to discuss further,” Richards told BBC News television today.
Regarding the possible deployment of special forces, Hague said that “circumstances can arise when these sorts of things happen. It would be foolish to exclude it.”
Allied forces used elite soldiers in Afghanistan to target tanks and other heavy weapons for air attacks.
The British military launched new strikes on Libyan targets overnight.
“For a second time, the U.K. has launched guided Tomahawk land attack missiles from a Trafalgar-class submarine in the Mediterranean as part of a coordinated coalition plan to enforce the resolution,” the chief U.K. spokesman, Major General John Lorimer, said in an e-mailed statement early this morning.
Gortney said Spain, Belgium, Denmark and Qatar have joined the coalition. The U.S., the U.K., France, Italy and Canada have at least 25 ships off the coast of Libya.
Spanish Fighters
Two Spanish fighters and a refueling aircraft undertook their first mission as part of the coalition, the Spanish Defense Ministry said.
Attacks have been “highly successful,” Lorimer said.
“Although they claimed a cease-fire yesterday, there is no evidence” of a change of policy from Qaddafi, Lorimer said. “Opposition sources are saying that Qaddafi is removing forces from Benghazi and targeting elsewhere.”
A United Nations resolution passed on March 17 permits “all necessary measures” short of an occupation to protect civilians from violence. Western leaders haven’t said what they’ll do if the no-fly zone fails to force Qaddafi to comply.
Unrest continued in Yemen today, as some army leaders and diplomats abandoned the regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, three days after a crackdown that left dozens dead.
Military officers including Mohammed Ali Muhssein, commander of the eastern region, and Hamid al-Qushaibi, head of an armored brigade, have “announced their support for the revolution,” said Mohammed al-Sabri, an opposition leader. Dozens of army and internal security officials, including three generals, have joined protesters calling for an end to Saleh’s rule three-decade rule, al-Jazeera television reported.
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