Gadhafi Defiant After Allied Attacks
SAM DAGHER ADAM ENTOUSNATHAN HODGE in Washington
U.S. radar-jamming aircraft and combat jets flew sorties Sunday to strike Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's ground forces and air defenses, as coalition forces moved quickly to impose a no-fly zone over Libya.
As western forces pounded Libya's air defenses and patrolled its skies on Sunday, their day-old intervention hit a serious diplomatic setback as Arab League chief Amr Moussa condemned the "bombardment of civilians". Video courtesy of Reuters.
In Tripoli, a defiant Col. Gadhafi said he would arm all Libyans and called on citizens, especially those in the eastern rebel bastion of Benghazi, to rise up against what he called a foreign aggression to occupy the country and steal its oil wealth.
"We will exterminate every traitor and collaborator with America, Britain, France and the crusader coalition," he said in an audio broadcast on state TV. "They shall be exterminated in Benghazi or any other place."
Allied airstrikes on Sunday stopped the assault on Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city, after the colonel's troops penetrated deep into the rebel capital on Saturday and heavily shelled its residential neighborhoods, threatening to snuff out the month-old Libyan revolution.
Despite Sunday's strikes, the Libyan government continued pushing ahead on another front, shelling the western city of Misrata, witnesses said. A spokesman for the revolutionaries in Misrata, the only western Libyan city not yet under Col. Gadhafi's control, said in a call to al-Jazeera television that government tanks have entered deep into that city's center, hunting down besieged rebels.
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi says airstrikes on Libya by Western countries amounted to terrorism and said he would defeat his enemies. Video Courtesy of Reuters.
While allied warplanes can easily pick off Col. Gadhafi's armor on desert highways, such as the one south of Benghazi where the loyalist column was bombed, the risk of hitting civilians limits the use of air power once the armor is already inside cities.
Meanwhile, Libya released an Italian ship and its crew on Sunday, said the ship's owner, a day after the vessel was seized by Libyan authorities in the port of Tripoli.
Navy officials said U.S. Navy EA-18G Growler radar-jamming aircraft, operating from coalition bases, and U.S. Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier jump-jets launched from the USS Kearsarge, flew missions early Sunday morning.
A U.S. military official also said four American B-2 bombers overnight dropped more than 40 bombs on a major Libyan airfield to try to destroy much of the Libyan Air Force, in addition to the French airstrikes and the cruise-missile attacks jointly launched by U.S. and U.K. forces on Saturday.
Burnt out vehicles and bodies are strewn across a strategic road on the outskirts of Benghazi after Western powers use air strikes to target Gaddafi's forces. Video Courtesy of Reuters.
One-hundred and ten Tomahawk cruise missiles that struck Libya on Saturday, were aimed at more than 20 Libyan air-defense sites, U.S. Vice. Adm. William Gortney told reporters.
The coordinated attacks—what Vice Adm. Gortney said were the first phase of a multiphase operation—appeared to be a calculated gamble that a rapid, and substantial attack could knock out loyalist support for Col. Gadhafi.
Earlier Sunday in the capital, heavy antiaircraft guns and small-arms fire were heard for about 15 minutes close to Col. Gadhafi's compound.
In his broadcast, Col. Gadhafi said he was arming all Libyans with heavy weapons and urged them to "exterminate traitors," referring to rebels and members of the opposition. He said he was distributing machine guns, rocket launchers, assault rifles and grenades to the people, and belittled the airstrikes.
"Your planes and missiles will not bother us, we are on our land," he said. "We are not disturbed, not terrorized, not afraid."
US and British ships and submarines on Saturday fired more than 110 Tomahawk missiles at 20 air defense system sites inside Libya, the Pentagon's Vice Adm. William E. Gortney said.
The coalition air and missile strikes represent a dramatic escalation in turmoil that has swept across the Middle East and North Africa.
Armor and artillery loyal to Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi pounded the rebel-held city of Benghazi today despite a declared cease-fire, causing civilian residents to flee toward Egypt. WSJ's Yaroslav Trofimov reports.
A Libyan military spokesman said 48 people had been killed and more than 150 injured in the coalition strikes against civilian and military targets in Benghazi, Misrata, Tripoli, Sirte and Zuwara. The spokesman didn't provide further details.
The statement couldn't be independently verified and no coalition strikes could be heard in Tripoli.
A doctor in Misrata said allied strikes hit Col. Gadhafi's forces in two locations. The doctor said massive explosions lit up the sky.
State media said strikes by U.S. and coalition forces hit a civilian hospital on the outskirts of Tripoli and a gas-storage facility in Misrata. Neither statement could be independently verified.
The international campaign represents a bet that Col. Gadhafi's forces could quickly crumble under the international assault.
Less clear is what might happen if he proves determined to cling to power, especially given his history of support for international terrorism.
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U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Saturday said the goal of the international assault was to protect civilians. She declined to speculate on whether Col. Gadhafi could stay in power if he acceded to international demands. "There are many different outcomes," she said.
Sarkozy accompanies U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton before a summit at the Elysee Palace in Paris.
Saturday's action was perhaps the clearest example of how President Barack Obama believes U.S. should deploy military force overseas. The effort was deliberately designed to appear as international as possible, with the U.S. taking something of a back seat to other Western powers, notably France. It is possible that after the initial barrage, U.S. forces would take a minor role.
Col. Gadhafi's "attacks on his own people have continued, his forces have been on the move and the danger faced by the people of Libya has grown," Mr. Obama told reporters in Brasilia, part of a previously scheduled swing through Latin America. "We must be clear, actions have consequences and the writ of the international community must be enforced."
Administration officials said they believe the approach could diminish any impression that the U.S. is directly interfering in the Middle East, an impression that could slow the democratic impulse sweeping through the region. At the same time, it opened the president to criticism, in particular from Republicans, that he isn't embracing the U.S.'s traditional role of international peacekeeper.
The U.S. arrived at this point somewhat reluctantly. Until several days ago, administration officials had been expressing doubts about the usefulness of a no-fly zone. Allies, especially among North Atlantic Treaty Organization nations, also had qualms. Two weeks ago, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates criticized "loose talk" about military intervention in Libya, warning lawmakers that "a no-fly zone begins with an attack on Libya."
After an international summit on Libya in France, President Sarkozy says action against Libya has begun. Video courtesy of Reuters.
But the imminent collapse of Libyan rebel forces, coupled with an endorsement from the Arab League, galvanized the West to act. While the Libya situation is markedly different from recent revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, Western officials worried that a victory for Col. Gadhafi would prevent the movement from spreading to places they would like to see it reach, such as Syria and Iran.
Mrs. Clinton, speaking Saturday at an emergency summit in Paris, said the U.S. would "not lead" the international response but would offer "unique capabilities" to support the coalition effort. The effort also includes Greece, the Netherlands, Turkey and Poland. Spain, Denmark, Belgium also pledged military cooperation, and on Sunday Qatar became the first Arab nation to join international action, saying on Sunday that it was sending fighter jets to Libya.
Indeed, it was French combat aircraft on Saturday that fired the first shots of the allied action in Libya. France has employed about 20 fighter jets as well as refueling planes, French Defense Ministry spokesman Laurent Teisseire told reporters in Paris.
A U.K. military spokesman said British fighter jets also had been used to fire on Libyan targets.
"As of now, our planes are preventing Gadhafi's attacks on the city," French President Nicholas Sarkozy said after the Paris summit ended.
Subsequent to the French air strikes, a U.K. Trafalgar Class submarine fired Tomahawk Land Attack missiles at air-defense targets in Libya and Tornado GR4 jets launched Stormshadow missiles, Britain's Defense Ministry said. The Tornados flew to Libya and back from a base in England. French officials said Canada could be in charge of enforcing a naval blockade off Libyan shores.
Key coalition strikes were expected along the Libyan coastline, where the country's integrated and missile-defense systems are located.
"Once we do that, that would open up the environment where we could enforce the no-fly zone from east to west of Libya," a senior U.S. defense official said.
The air campaign, the official said, aimed to "prevent further attacks by regime forces on Libyan citizens and opposition groups, especially in and around Benghazi."
The military operation, dubbed Odyssey Dawn by U.S. officials, was under the broad operational control of Gen. Carter Ham, the commander of the U.S. Africa Command, which is based in Stuttgart, Germany.
A U.S. joint task force was under way in the Mediterranean commanded by Navy Adm. Samuel Locklear aboard the command ship USS Mount Whitney. A coalition commander, as yet unnamed, was expected to take over in the coming days.
A fleet of 11 U.S. and more than a dozen European and Canadian ships were in position Saturday to support operations. Italy also was participating.
In addition to the Mount Whitney, U.S. ships under Odyssey Dawn included the Kearsarge and Ponce and the guided-missile destroyers USS Stout and USS Barry, along with logistics and refueling ships.
At least two U.S. submarines, the USS Providence and the USS Florida, also were in the Mediterranean, according to briefing slides shown by the Pentagon.
The U.S. decided to strike air defenses Saturday after concluding the movement of Col. Gadhafi's forces toward Benghazi, and the attacks against civilian populace in both Benghazi and Misrata, meant "the regime had no intention of complying with their so-called cease-fire announcement," a senior defense official said.
"It wasn't so much about planning to initiate operations on a 'date certain' as it was about determining if the regime would heed the warnings of the international community and comply" with the U.N. resolution, the official said.
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