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m.cnbc.com | Mar 19th 2011 4:07 PMThe US began strikes inside Libya Saturday afternoon, to take out Muammar Gaddafi's integrated air and defense missile systems along the northern coast, NBC news reported.
The series of more than 110 cruise missile strikes on Libyan targets is only the first phase of a multiphase operation, a senior U.S. military official said on Saturday, quoted by Reuters.
Vice Admiral Bill Gortney, director of the U.S. military's Joint Staff, declined to discuss what the next phase of the operations would be. He said more than 20 sites had been targeted in coalition strikes so far.
The French air force destroyed Libyan tanks and armored vehicles earlier on Saturday, the first shots fired in a U.N.-mandated military intervention to protect civilians from attacks by Muammar Gaddafi's forces.
A French defense ministry official said "a number of tanks and armored vehicles" were destroyed in the region of Benghazi, with initial action focusing on stopping Gaddafi's forces from advancing on the rebels' eastern stronghold.
Ambulances were rushing to transport "civilian casualties" in Libya's capital Tripoli after Western forces bombarded areas of the city, Libya's state news agency Jana reported. The report could not be independently verified.
The US strikes will help enforce the no-fly zone along the coast and inside of Libya as far south as Sabha. The Operation, named Odyssey Dawn, will initially launch Tomahawk Missiles (and possibly other weapons) at 11 sites along the coast: four near Tripoli, four near Misratah, two southeast of Misratah (near Surt) and one west of Tripoli, NBC news reported.
Once those sites are taken out, the coalition can enforce the no-fly zone along the coast. The no fly zone goes from west of Tripoli, over Misratah, over Benghazi, over Nafoura, down to Waha and down just south of Sabha.
There are 11 U.S. ships in the Mediterranean and 11 other coalition ships, NBC news reported. The U.S. also has 5 P-3 Orion surveillance planes flying off the coast.
Operational control of Odyssey Dawn will be handled by Africa Command in Stuttgart, and the Joint Task Force Commander will be Admiral Sam Locklear, embarked on the USS Mount Whitney in the Mediterranean.
While France is part of the coalition, the first jets already flying over Libya are not part of Odyssey Dawn, which officially begins when the strikes begin, according to NBC news.
Britain, France, Italy, and Canada are already part of the coalition and others will announce they are joining in the coming hours, according to NBC news.
Gaddafi's troops on Saturday morning pushed into the outskirts of Benghazi, a city of 670,000 people, in an apparent attempt to pre-empt Western military intervention expected after a meeting of Western and Arab leaders in Paris.
But as the meeting ended, French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced that allied air forces had already gone into action.
"It's a grave decision we've had to take," Sarkozy said after meeting British Prime Minister David Cameron, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other leaders in Paris. "Along with our Arab, European and North American partners, France has decided to play its part before history."
Sarkozy said of the meeting: "Those taking part agreed to put in place all necessary means, especially military, to enforce the decisions of the United Nations Security Council.
"This is why, in agreement with our partners, our air forces will counter any aggression by Colonel Gaddafi's aircraft against the population of Benghazi," he said. "As of now, other French aircraft are ready to intervene against armored vehicles which threaten unarmed civilians." Military action could be halted at any time if Gaddafi stopped his forces attacking, Sarkozy said.
"Colonel Gaddafi has made this happen," British Prime Minister David Cameron told reporters after the meeting. "He has lied to the international community, he has promised a ceasefire, he has broken that ceasefire ... We cannot allow the slaughter of civilians to continue."
Russia said it regretted a decision by Western nations to take military action in Libya.
"Air force units from a host of countries began military actions in Libya on March 19," Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement. "Moscow regrets this military action."
Gaddafi said Western powers had no right to intervene.
"This is injustice, this is clear aggression," government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim quoted Gaddafi as saying in a letter to France, Britain and the United Nations. "You will regret it if you take a step towards interfering in our internal affairs."
The Libyan government blamed the rebels, who it says are members of al Qaeda, for breaking the ceasefire around Benghazi. A large crowd of Gaddafi supporters waving green Libyan flags and portraits of the leader gathered outside his house in Tripoli, in an apparent move to discourage foreign airstrikes.
Thousands Flee Benghazi
A large plume of black smoke rose from the edge of Benghazi mid-afternoon, live television pictures showed, but it was not clear what was causing the fire. Residents set up make-shift barricades with furniture, benches, road signs and even a barbecue in one case at intervals along main streets.
Each barricade was manned by half a dozen rebels, but only about half of those were armed. Hundreds of cars full of refugees fled Benghazi towards the Egyptian border after the city came under a bombardment overnight. One family of 13 women from a grandmother to small children, rested at a roadside hotel.
"I'm here because when the bombing started last night my children were vomiting from fear," said one of them, a doctor. "All I want to do is get my family to a safe place and then get back to Benghazi to help. My husband is still there."
In the besieged western city of Misrata, residents said government forces shelled the rebel town again on Saturday and they were facing a humanitarian crisis as water supplies had been cut off for a third day.
"I am telling you, we are scared and we are alone," a Misrata resident, called Saadoun, told Reuters by telephone.
Plane Shot Down
As explosions shook Benghazi on Saturday morning, rebels said they were forced to retreat from the outskirts of the city, but later claimed victory after holding back the advance.
"We revolutionaries have taken control of four tanks inside Benghazi. Rebel forces have pushed Gaddafi's forces out of Benghazi," said Nasr al-Kikili, a lawyer who works for the rebel media center in Benghazi, as crowds celebrated by firing guns in the air and parading on top of a tank.
An unidentified warplane was shot down over Benghazi.
"I saw the plane circle around, come out of the clouds, head towards an apparent target, and then it was hit and went straight down in flames and a huge billow of black smoke went up," Reuters correspondent Angus MacSwan said. "It seems it was attacking the Benghazi military barracks."
Al Jazeera said there were 26 dead and more than 40 wounded in Jala hospital in Benghazi, without giving further details.
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