Missiles hit Libya

source: mb.com.ph

Hours after United States (US) and British ships pounded Libya with precision missiles, American officials are eager to confirm that the damage was extensive enough to allow air patrols to protect civilians being targeted by embattled strongman Moammar Khadafy, who remained defiant.

US President Barack Obama, who is in Brazil for a five-day visit, stressed the US' reluctance to take on another war.

“This is not an outcome the US or any of our partners sought,” Obama said.

He, however, was convinced it was necessary to save the lives of civilians, particularly in and around the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

“We cannot stand idly by when a tyrant tells his people there will be no mercy,” he added.

But Khadafy, in a televised audio message on Sunday, said all Libya’s people have been armed and are ready to defeat Western forces attacking the North African nation.

“All the Libyan people are united. The Libyan men and women have been given weapons and bombs ... You will not advance, you will not step on this land,” said Khadafy. He warned leaders of Britain, France, and the United States that they would “fall like Hitler ... Mussolini.”

“All tyrants fall under the pressure of the populist masses,” he added.

On the other hand, military officials said that as Sunday dawned in Libya, satellites would give commanders a better view of the expected destruction along the country’s coastline.

US and British ships launched the first phase of the missile assault Saturday, raining 112 Tomahawk cruise missiles onto more than 20 radar systems, communications centers, and surface-to-air missile sites.

While the US was leading the initial onslaught, officials made it clear that America would quickly step back into a supporting role, possibly within days, and shift command to its European and Arab partners.

As this developed, the Pentagon was in 24-hour battle mode.

Military leaders, including Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, scrambled over the past several days to coordinate the attacks with commanders and reach out to military counterparts in the region.

A defense official who spoke on grounds of anonymity because of the ongoing operation said officials believed that because of the precision targeting of the strikes, the damage to Kadhafy’s military establishment was significant and substantial.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates was conferring with President Obama and his national security team, as they reviewed the steady flow of intelligence information and operations updates.

Gates had planned to fly to Russia Saturday but delayed his departure for a day so that he could be in Washington to monitor the operation’s launch.

Navy Vice Adm. William E. Gortney, director of the Pentagon's Joint Staff, told reporters that the cruise missile assault was the “leading edge” of a coalition campaign dubbed “Operation Odyssey Dawn.”

Also targeted are early warning radars and unspecified communications facilities, Gortney said.

He added that this is just the start of a “multi-phased’ operation.

The first Tomahawk cruise missiles struck at 9 p.m. local time, Gortney said, after a one-hour flight from the US and British vessels on station in the Mediterranean.

They were fired from five US ships – the guided-missile destroyers USS Stout and USS Barry, and three submarines, USS Providence, USS Scranton, and USS Florida.

The US has at least 11 naval vessels in the Mediterranean, including three submarines, two destroyers, two amphibious warfare ships, and the USS Mount Whitney, a command-and-control vessel that is the flagship of the Navy’s 6th Fleet.

Also in the area are Navy P-3 and EP-3 surveillance aircraft, officials said.

Hours after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton attended an international conference in Paris that endorsed military action against Kadhafy, the US and Britain kicked off their attacks.

Clinton said Khadafy had left the world no choice but to intervene urgently and forcefully to protect further loss of civilian life.

As this developed, Japan on Sunday said it backed multinational strikes in Libya, urging Khadafy, who has been battling rebel forces, to make a “prudent decision.”

A United Nations (UN) resolution on Thursday authorized the use of “all necessary means” to protect civilians and enforce a ceasefire with rebels and a no-fly zone against Khadafy’s forces.

“The Japanese government supports measures taken by UN member states under UN Security Council Resolution 1973,” Japan’s Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto said in a statement.

“We strongly condemn the Libyan authorities for continuing violence against the people,” Matsumoto said. “We strongly urge the Libyan authorities to make a prudent decision as quickly as possible.”

But China expressed regret on Sunday over the multinational air strikes in Libya, saying in a foreign ministry statement that it opposed the use of force in international relations.

Russia also issued a similarly worded statement in which it called for a ceasefire as soon as possible.

China and Russia were the most prominent voices in opposition to military action in Libya within the 15-member United Nations Security Council.

However, neither blocked the UN resolution authorizing the op¬eration, abstaining in the Security Council vote on the issue rather than using their veto power.

France and Britain had led the demands for a no-fly zone, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy wrote to the heads of state or government of all the other council members seeking urgent backing for the measure.

Premier Wen Jiabao last year rejected any comparison to the situation in the Middle East and North Africa with China.

In a development here in the Philippines, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Sunday disclosed that, as a member of the UN, and a signatory of its Charter, the Philippines abides by the decision of the UN Security Council in imposing a "no-fly zone" over Libyan airspace.

In a statement, DFA spokesperson Ed Malaya said this UN action is a humanitarian measure which is meant to safeguard the civilian population in Benghazi and other contested areas of Libya.

Malaya, likewise, gave the assurance that recent developments will not likely adversely affect Filipinos as the bulk of our nationals already exited Libya. (With reports from Reuters, AFP, and Roy Mabasa)

source: mb.com.ph