French jet fires on Libyan military vehicle
Last Updated 3:27 p.m. ET
A French fighter jet fired Saturday on a Libyan military vehicle, the first reported offensive action in an international military operation against Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi's forces, a French defense official said.
French Defense Ministry spokesman Thierry Burkhard said the strike happened at 1645 GMT Saturday.
Burkhard said the target was confirmed as a military vehicle, but it was not clear what kind. He said no hostile fire on the French jet has been reported.
It was the first reported offensive military action against Qaddafi's troops, since the U.N. Security Council approved a resolution on Thursday, authorizing operations to protect civilians in Libya.
France sent a dozen Mirage and Rafale jets Saturday to survey the one-time opposition stronghold of Benghazi and the 150 kilometer-by-100 kilometer no-fly zone, Burkhard said.
"All aircraft that enter into this zone could be shot down," he said.
The strike came less than two hours after top officials from the United States, Europe and the Arab world agreed in Paris to launch a risky military operation to protect civilians from attacks by Qaddafi's forces.
It also came after Libyan government forces attacked Benghazi earlier Saturday, apparently ignoring a proclaimed cease-fire.
Libyan state TV said Libyans, including women and children, were having a sit-in at the Tripoli international airport, apparently to deter bombers. It showed footage of hundreds of mostly young men on the runway carrying green flags and signs in support of Qaddafi.
Qaddafi defies U.N., attacks rebel forces
Latest developments: March 19 blog
Complete coverage: Anger in the Arab World
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said after an emergency summit in Paris that French jets were already targeting Qaddafi's forces. The 22 participants in Saturday's summit "agreed to put in place all the means necessary, in particular military" to make Qaddafi respect a U.N. Security Council resolution Thursday demanding a cease-fire, Sarkozy said.
Speaking in Brazil Saturday, President Barack Obama said that the U.S. and its allies are prepared to act with urgency to end violence against civilians in Libya.
"Our consensus was strong, and our resolve is clear. The people of Libya must be protected, and in the absence of an immediate end to the violence against civilians our coalition is prepared to act, and to act with urgency," Mr. Obama said on the first day of a three-country Latin American tour.
Speaking in Paris on Saturday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the international community had every reason to think that Qaddafi would commit "unspeakable atrocities" if his actions were left unchecked.
Meanwhile, Russia's government said it regrets the start of an international military operation against Qaddafi's forces.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that "Moscow notes with regret this armed action, taken in conjunction with the hastily approved U.N. Security Council resolution" allowing a no-fly zone over Libya.
Moscow urged "exhaustive measures to ensure the safety of foreign diplomatic missions and their staff."
American ships and aircraft stationed in and around the Mediterranean Sea did not participate in initial French air missions Saturday over Libya, but the U.S. prepared to launch a missile attack on Libyan air defenses, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the unfolding intervention.
One official said the U.S. intends to limit its involvement - at least in the initial stages - to helping protect French and other air missions by taking out Libyan air defenses.
An attack against those defenses with Navy sea-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles was planned for later Saturday, one official said. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of military operations.
The official said that depending on how Libyan forces responded to initial intervention by the French and others, the U.S. could launch additional attacks in support of allied forces. The intention was to leave it to other nations to patrol a no-fly zone over Libya once air defenses are silenced, the official said.
Qaddafi had tried to take advantage of the time lag between the U.N. resolution and the launch of the international operation, making a decisive strike on the Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city and the first major stronghold of the rebellion.
Crashing shells shook buildings, and the sounds of battle drew closer to the city center as its residents despaired. A doctor said 27 bodies were brought to the hospital by midday. By late in the day, warplanes could be heard overhead.
"Our planes are blocking the air attacks on the city" of Benghazi, he said, without elaborating. French planes have been readying for an attack in recent days.
In an open letter, Qaddafi warned: "You will regret it if you dare to intervene in our country."
Al Jazeera reported that Qaddafi's forces also resumed bombing the western cities of Misrata and Zintan.
Earlier Saturday, a plane was shot down over the outskirts of Benghazi, sending up a massive black cloud of smoke. An Associated Press reporter saw the plane go down in flames and heard the sound of artillery and crackling gunfire.
Before the plane went down, journalists heard what appeared to be airstrikes from it. Rebels cheered and celebrated at the crash, though the government denied a plane had gone down — or that any towns were shelled on Saturday.
The fighting galvanized the people of Benghazi, with young men collecting bottles to make gasoline bombs. Some residents dragged bed frames and metal scraps into the streets to make roadblocks.
Abdel-Hafez, a 49-year-old Benghazi resident, said rebels and government soldiers were fighting on a university campus on the south side of the city, with government tanks moving in, followed by ground troops. In the city center, tank fire drew closer and rebel shouts rang out.
At a news conference in the capital, Tripoli, the government spokesman read letters from Qaddafi to President Barack Obama and others involved in the international effort.
"Libya is not yours. Libya is for the Libyans. The Security Council resolution is invalid," he said in the letter to Sarkozy, British Prime Minister David Cameron, and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.
To Obama, the Libyan leader was slightly more conciliatory: "If you had found them taking over American cities with armed force, tell me what you would do."
Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said the rebels — and not Qaddafi's forces — broke a cease-fire called by the government.
"Our armed forces continue to retreat and hide, but the rebels keep shelling us and provoking us," Musa told The Associated Press.
In a joint statement to Qaddafi late Friday, the United States, Britain and France — backed by unspecified Arab countries — called on Qaddafi to end his troops' advance toward Benghazi and pull them out of the cities of Misrata, Ajdabiya and Zawiya. It also called for the restoration of water, electricity and gas services in all areas. It said Libyans must be able to receive humanitarian aid or the "international community will make him suffer the consequences" with military action.
In Benghazi, crowds gathered at the courthouse that is the de facto rebel headquarters. About 200 people were in the area, drinking tea and talking. Some brought a tank and a mounted anti-aircraft gun they said they had captured today.
Dr. Gebreil Hewadi of the Jalaa Hospital and a member of the rebel health committee said that 27 dead had been taken to the hospital since Friday night.
Misrata, Libya's third-largest city and the last held by rebels in the west, came under sustained assault well after the cease-fire announcement, according to rebels and a doctor there. The doctor, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared reprisals, said Qaddafi's snipers were on rooftops and his forces were searching homes for rebels.
Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa said that Libyan officials had informed the U.N. and the Security Council that the government was holding to the cease-fire and called for a team of foreign observers to verify that.
"The nation is respecting all the commitments put on it by the international community," he said, leaving the podium before answering any questions about Benghazi.
In the course of the rebellion, Libya has gone from a once-promising economy with the largest proven oil reserves in Africa to a country in turmoil. The foreign workers that underpinned the oil industry have fled; production and exports have all but ground to a halt; and its currency is down 30 percent in just two weeks.
The oil minister, Shukri Ghanem, held a news conference calling on foreign oil companies to send back their workers. He said the government would honor all its contracts.
"It is not our intention to violate any of these agreements and we hope that from their part they will honor this agreement and they will send back their workforces," he said.
Italy, which had been the main buyer for Libyan oil, offered the use of seven air and navy bases already housing U.S., NATO and Italian forces to enforce the no-fly zone over Libya.
Italy's defense minister, Ignazio La Russa, said Saturday that Italy wasn't just "renting out" its bases for others to use but was prepared to offer "moderate but determined" military support.
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This nuclear disaster is a tragedy that is still difficult for some to understand.
We need to mobilize all available resources as soon as possible.
We must take proactive steps, preposition equipment, boron. We need C-130s in Japan, firefighter planes, detection equipment...
The plutonium that is currently detectable in the US will last for many generations. The contamination is still arriving, plumes from the big explosions have not yet hit, and the plants are not secure.
Americans we are getting directly hit by what is vastly worse than the dirty bombs we heard so much about. And, this could get much worse.
At this time, for most regular Americans and for future generations - Libya is a sideshow,...
What do you mean by that?
The military is composed of the indigenous people, slow. Seriously, ask for a refund.
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The military is part of the government, Nmmrng. It does NOT consist of civilians, but instead of former civilians. Big difference.
Perhaps you don't realize that you no longer "own yourself" when you join the US military, Nmmrng?
You really really really need at least a basic education, or you're going to continue to waste everyone's time having to hold your hand and explaining EVERYthing to you five times in a row.
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Education will NOT hurt you, nmmrng. Try it.
Your missing the point.The left wingers were not vilifying the Bush administration's attack on Iraq because they were killing muslims .They were doing it because the invasion was killing humans who were nothing to do with the war on terror and until the US illegally attacked them, posed minimal risk to America. Also the war was illegal.
As for Afghanistan no one was against removing the Taliban (again liberals it was themselves who raised the plight and oppression of Afghans to the worlds eye.) Had the US military not spread itself so thinly, things may have turned out better there.
No, YOU don't make any sense. Its very clear to the less cerebrally challenged among us exactly why we are where we are in Afghanistan.
Are the soldiers and airmen we will be killing not people, slow? their mothers might differ with you. Are they most probably also Muslim in Libya? If you consider yourself "educated", you should ask for a refund.
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The phrase "the people" - as you said "war on the Muslim people" - is considered the civilian population.
Of course, that is just to people who have a brain. You're excused.
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But, of course, I'm not surprised you don't get it. When you say "attacking the Muslims people", you are referring to the indigenous population, not the military.
Or at least that would be the case if you'd been educated properly.
If you promise to clean up your river dumps chumps.
by Riverjump March 19, 2011 4:28 PM EDT
riverdumps? wtheck was that? Oh , just a rhyhming thing? ok.
No, it's not a rhyming thing. He's just plain and simply RETARDED.
The gist of your argument appears to be that all liberals are pro muslim at the expense of all others. This laughably fallacious theory was peddled to the unwashed masses by the last Republican administration to to discredit those with the sense to call it as they saw it vis a vis WMDs and illegal wars......................You see the difference with the intervention in Libya conflict is that it is mandated
This action is to PROTECT the citizens of Libya.
PLEASE educate yourself for once before you open your yap. You waste a lot of time making people explain obvious things to you.
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Yet, here we have Mr Obama and his supporters engaged in a multi country war on Muslim peoples.
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Dear Dipwad:
Please notice that the action on Libya is TO PROTECT ITS PEOPLE FROM ITS GOVERNMENT.
Do you EVER read the article to know what the hell you're talking about? EVER??
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Well Libyan have a lot of their money in MY Canada...And not in erasmoose is Canada...
Whaaaaaat?
We invented the English language and certainly not the viking barbarian remnants...Let hear it what are the origin of the English language clueless mommy.
Huh? You wanna run that by me again?
However ,so far, the international community is making a better breast of it than the coalition forces did in Iraq. Now one of the most dangerous unstable terrorist ridden messes on the planet(because the police force and the army were was disbanded.)if my foreign correspondent acquaintance is to be believed.