THIS WEEK IN NEWS

Gadhafi vows 'long war' after US, allies strike


TRIPOLI, Libya – A defiant Moammar Gadhafi vowed a "long war" after the U.S. and European militaries blasted his forces with airstrikes and over 100 cruise missiles, hitting air defenses and at least two major air bases early Sunday, shaking the Libyan capital with explosions and anti-aircraft fire.

Despite the strikes, Gadhafi's troops lashed back, bombarding the rebel-held city of Misrata with artillery and tanks on Sunday, the opposition reported.

The nighttime barrage, mainly by U.S and British ships and submarines, marked the widest international military effort since the Iraq war. The international air assault came as Gadhafi's overwhelming firepower was threatening to crush the month-old rebellion against his 41-year rule. State television said 48 people were killed in the strikes.

The strikes by missiles and warplanes hit one of Libya's main air bases, on Tripoli's outskirts, the opposition said. Also hit, it said, was an air force complex outside Misrata, the last rebel-held city in western Libya — which has been under siege the past week by Gadhafi forces. Those forces have been bombarding the city from the complex, which houses an air base and a military academy.

Despite the strikes, Gadhafi forces resumed bombarding Misrata after daylight on Sunday, said Switzerland-based Libyan activist Fathi al-Warfali.

"Misrata is the only city in western Libya not under Gadhafi's control; he is trying hard to change its position," said al-Warfali, who told The Associated Press he was in touch with residents in the city.

In Benghazi, the rebel capital and first city to fall to the uprising that began Feb. 15, people said the strikes happened just in time. Libyan government tanks and troops on Saturday had reached the edges of the city in eastern Libya in fierce fighting that killed more than 120 people according to Gibreil Hewadi, a member of the rebel health committee in Benghazi. He said the dead included rebel fighters and civilians, among them women and children.

Sunday, the city was quiet. As part of the international assault, French warplanes hit targets in the Benghazi area.

"It was a matter of minutes and Gadhafi's forces would have been in Benghazi," said Akram Abdul Wahab, a 20-year-old butcher in the city.

Mohammed Faraj, 44, a former military man who joined the rebels, held a grenade in each hand as he manned a checkpoint on the outskirts of the city.

"Me and all of Benghazi, we will die before Gadhafi sets foot here again," Faraj told The Associated Press. "Our spirits are very high."

The initial missile assault of 112 Tomahawk cruise missiles aimed to take out Gadhafi's air defenses to clear the way for enforcing a no-fly zone, targeting more than 20 radar systems, communications centers and surface-to-air missile sites. But the U.N. resolution authorizing the action goes much further, allowing "all necessary means" to protect civilians.

That means the U.S. and Europeans have a free hand in the next stages to attack Gadhafi's ground forces besieging rebel cities or other military targets.

The rebels, who control most of the eastern half of Libya, hope the allied intervention will — in the short term — tip the scales back in their favor after an onslaught by Gadhafi's forces threatened to reverse their gains early in the uprising. In the longer term, they hope to regain a momentum that will allow them to topple the Libyan leader.

Still, the top U.S. military officer said the goals of the international campaign are "limited" and won't necessarily lead to the ousting of Gadhafi.

Asked on NBC's "Meet the Press" whether it was possible that the mission's goals could be achieved while leaving Gadafi in power, Adm. Mike Mullen said, "That's certainly potentially one outcome." Pressed on this point later in an interview on CNN's "State of the Union," Mullen was more vague, saying it was too early to speculate. He said the Libyan leader is "going to have to make some choices about his own future" at some point.

Gadhafi vowed to fight on. In a phone call to Libyan state television, he said he would not let up on Benghazi and said the government had opened up weapons depots to all Libyans, who were now armed with "automatic weapons, mortars and bombs." State television said Gadhafi's supporters were converging on airports as human shields.

"We promise you a long war," he said.

He called the international assault "simply a colonial crusader aggression that may ignite another large-scale crusader war."

Throughout the day Sunday, Libyan TV showed a stream of what it said were popular demonstrations in support of Gadhafi in Tripoli and other towns and cities. It showed cars with horns blaring, women ullulating, young men waving green flags and holding up pictures of the Libyan leader. Women and children chanted, "God, Muammar and Libya, that's it!"

"Our blood is green, not red," one unidentified woman told the broadcaster, referring to the signature color of Gadhafi's regime. "He is our father, we will be with him to the last drop of blood. Our blood is green with our love for him."

The cruise missile assault was the "leading edge" of a coalition campaign, named Operation Odyssey Dawn, said Navy Vice Adm. William E. Gortney, director of the Pentagon's Joint Staff.

He said it would take six to 12 hours to assess the damage, and if the main targets — Libya's SA-5 surface-to-air missiles — were taken out, then it would be safe to send an unmanned Global Hawk surveillance drone to get a better picture of the area.

French fighter jets fired the first salvos overnight, carrying out several strikes in the rebel-held east, around the Benghazi area, while British fighter jets also bombarded the North African nation. The cruise missile barrage was fired from five U.S. ships in the Mediterranean — the guided-missile destroyers USS Stout and USS Barry, and three submarines, USS Providence, USS Scranton and USS Florida.

The U.S. military announced that Navy electronic warfare aircraft and Marine Corps attack jets joined the international assault early Sunday. Navy EA-18G Growlers launched from unspecified land bases to provide electronic warfare support over Libya. Marine AV-8B Harriers from the USS Kearsarge sailing in the Mediterranean conducted strikes against Gadhafi's ground forces and air defenses.

President Barack Obama said military action was not his first choice and reiterated that he would not send American ground troops.

"This is not an outcome the U.S. or any of our partners sought," Obama said from Brazil, where he is starting a five-day visit to Latin America. "We cannot stand idly by when a tyrant tells his people there will be no mercy."

The U.S. has struck Libya before. Former President Ronald Reagan launched U.S. airstrikes on Libya in 1986 after a bombing at a Berlin disco — which the U.S. blamed on Libya — that killed three people, including two American soldiers. The airstrikes killed about 100 people in Libya, including Gadhafi's young adopted daughter at his Tripoli compound.

The overnight attack early Sunday shook coastal cities, including Tripoli, where anti-aircraft guns could be heard firing.

Libyan TV quoted the armed forces command as saying 48 people were killed and 150 wounded in the allied assault. It said most of the casualties were children but gave no more details.

Mullen told NBC's "Meet the Press" that he had seen no reports of civilian casualties as a result of the coalition's military operation.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was "deeply concerned" about civilians and called on all sides work to distinguish between civilians and fighters and allow safe access for humanitarian organizations.





Remains of Gaddafi's force smolders near Benghazi


BENGHAZI-AJDABIYAH ROAD, Libya (Reuters) – Muammar Gaddafi's wrecked tanks and other army vehicles smoldered on a strategic road in east Libya on Sunday after Western powers launched air strikes that galvanized embattled rebels.

Rebels who had been driven back to their stronghold of Benghazi by the Libyan leader's air, sea and land offensive in the past two weeks were returning in 4x4 pick-ups to the town of Ajdabiyah, the hard fought over gateway to east Libya.

The road the rebels drove was a scene of devastation. This correspondent counted at least 16 corpses, though the scale of the bombardment made identifying bodies difficult.

"This is all France ... Today we came through and saw the road open," said rebel fighter Tahir Sassi, surveying one area where blackened vehicles lined the road to Ajdabiyah, about 150 km south of Benghazi. Lamp posts were broken in two or bent double.

About 14 tanks, 20 armored personnel carriers, two trucks with multiple rocket launchers and dozens of pick-ups -- all destroyed -- were visible, indicating the strength of the force sent to retake Benghazi from rebels.

One tank was a blackened wreck with its turret blown off. Another tank, a tank transporter and armored personnel carriers smoldered. A few hundred meters (yards) ahead, munitions were still exploding as flames licked around vehicles and stores.

Rebels had pleaded for military intervention as they were pushed back and after Gaddafi vowed "no mercy, no pity" as he advanced toward Benghazi where the interim rebel National Libyan Council has its headquarters.

France led the calls for intervention and its planes were the first into Libyan airspace to launch raids, before U.S. and British warships and submarines fired Tomahawk missiles overnight against air defenses.

About 70 km (45 miles) out of Benghazi, rebels faced small arms fire. Mortar rounds launched by Gaddafi's forces to the south landed on either side of the road. Rebels fired back.

'NO MORE RETREAT'

"Gaddafi is like a chicken and the coalition is plucking his feathers so he can't fly. The revolutionaries will slit his neck," said Fathi Bin Saud, a 52-year-old rebel carrying a rocket propelled grenade launcher and surveying the wreckage.

"There is no more retreat, we are going forward from now on," he said. "Not all of this is the coalition. We did some of it as well. They encourage us. We were fighting even before they came. This has raised our morale."

Rebels, who have mainly relied on 4x4 pickups with machine guns, were heavily outgunned by Gaddafi before the West acted.

They reached the town of Bin Jawad about 525 km (330 miles) east of Tripoli before being driven back to Ajdabiyah, more than 700 km from the capital.

Battle debris on the road out of Benghazi showed Gaddafi's forces had nearly breached the inner parts of the city. Near Tarria village about 20 km south of Benghazi on the highway to Ajdabiyah, locals said they had advanced up the road early on Saturday and were only beaten back by the first foreign air strikes after fighting reached the suburbs.

Civilians and fighters clambered on the ruined tanks, taking photos and picking through the pockets of the dead.

Mohamed Joma, who said he was a pharmacist, said the planes had struck about 4 am (0200 GMT) that morning.

"Look, the tanks were pointing to Benghazi. They wanted to go to Benghazi. They did not escape," he said.

Some of the bodies on the road were charred, others were already covered with blankets. Some were beside vehicles and one lay inside a destroyed ambulance, with no sign of those who would have attended him.

Flesh and blood was smeared on the ground at one spot, where there were bandages scattered on the floor.

Gaddafi's forces about 20 km south of Benghazi appeared to have been taken by surprise by one air strike on their camp.

Enough bedding and clothes for hundreds of men littered the area for 200 meters on either side of the road, along with boots, body armor, cigarettes and cassette tapes.

"Tell the West to destroy Gaddafi slowly, piece by piece by piece, the way he did to us for 40 years," said Jamal al-Majbouri, who owns a farm nearby.





Tutu: Africa must hold Gadhafi accountable

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu says African leaders must hold their peers like Moammar Gadhafi accountable.

The statement released Sunday by Tutu says Africa "seems powerless" to stop the Libyan leader who has ruled for more than 40 years.

U.S. and European allies are conducting the widest international military effort in Libya since the Iraq war. But an African Union panel said late Saturday it was opposed to a foreign military intervention.

Tutu says there would be no need for a military interventions in Libya if Africa's leaders had held their peers to account.

Gadhafi has long played a big role in the African Union, using Libya's oil wealth to fund its transformation. He also served as AU chairman in 2009.







Bomb kills two in central Nigeria: police


JOS, Nigeria (AFP) – A bomb carried by two men aboard a motorcycle killed them on Sunday when it accidentally exploded in the tense central Nigerian city of Jos, police and witnesses said.

"Two men were riding a motorcycle allegedly carrying explosives. They had not got to their destination whilst still on the bike, the explosives went off and killed the two men," Plateau State police commissioner Abdulrahman Akano told AFP.

He said the incident happened Sunday morning at Nasarawa Gwom, a mainly Christian district of Jos, the capital of Plateau State.

"When Christian youths got wind of what happened they were angry and burnt the two corpses into ashes," he said.

A witness, Baba Nasarawa, also confirmed the incident.

"The two men on a motorcycle were heading towards Angwan Rukuba when the bomb fell off and exploded, killing them on the spot," he told AFP.

He said no other person was hurt in the incident, the latest to hit the violence-wracked city of Jos, scene of deadly Christmas Eve bombings.

Another source told AFP that an alleged bomb that was planted behind the Evangelical Church of West Africa in the city failed to detonate Sunday morning.

Akano however said there were no indications that the explosives that killed the two motorcycle riders were meant for a particular church in the volatile city, notorious for frequent clashes between Christian and Muslim ethnic groups.

He said the military special task force and the police had restored normalcy to the area.

Jos and its environs have been hit by waves of violence involving Christian and Muslim ethnic groups in recent years that have claimed hundreds of lives.

The state is located in the so-called middle belt between the mainly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south of Nigeria, Africa's most populous country with some 150 million inhabitants.

Last week, soldiers intercepted a truckload of explosives heading into Jos ahead of next month's general elections.

Nigeria holds presidential, state and legislative elections in April in a test of whether it can break with a history of deeply flawed and violent polls.





First wave of allied assault: 112 cruise missiles

WASHINGTON – U.S. and British ships and submarines launched the first phase of a missile assault on Libyan air defenses Saturday and a senior American defense official said it was believed substantial damage was inflicted.

In the strikes, 112 Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired at more than 20 coastal targets to clear the way for air patrols to ground Libya's air force.

While U.S. defense officials cautioned that it was too early to fully gauge the impact of the onslaught, the official said that given the precision targeting of the Navy's cruise missiles, they felt that Libya's air defenses suffered a good deal of damage.

Explosions continued to rock the coastal cities, including Tripoli. Navy Vice Adm. Wiliam E. Gortney, director of the Pentagon's Joint Staff, would not discuss future operations But defense officials said military action was likely to continue.

The official spoke on grounds of anonymity because the ongoing mission.

In announcing the mission during a visit to Brazil, President Barack Obama said he was reluctant to resort to force but was convinced it was necessary to save the lives of civilians. He reiterated that he would not send American ground troops to Libya.

"We cannot stand idly by when a tyrant tells his people there will be no mercy," he said in Brasilia.

While U.S. defense officials said it was too early to gauge the impact of the onslaught, one senior official said that given the precision targeting of the Navy's cruise missiles, they believe Libya's air defenses suffered a good deal of damage.

It was clear the U.S. intended to limit its role in the Libya intervention, focusing first on disabling or otherwise silencing Libyan air defenses, and then leaving it to European and perhaps Arab countries to enforce a no-fly zone over the North African nation.

Gortney told reporters the cruise missile assault was the "leading edge" of a coalition campaign dubbed Operation Odyssey Dawn. Its aim: prevent Moammar Gadhafi's forces from inflicting more violence on civilians -- particularly in and around the rebel stronghold of Benghazi -- and degrading the Libyan military's ability to contest a no-fly zone.

"This is not an outcome the U.S. or any of our partners sought," Obama said from Brazil, where he is starting a five-day visit to Latin America. "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."

A chief target of Saturday's cruise missile attack was Libya's SA-5 surface-to-air missiles, which are considered a moderate threat to some allied aircraft. Libya's overall air defenses are based on older Soviet technology but Gortney called them capable and a potential threat to allied aircraft.

Also targeted: early warning radars and unspecified communications facilities, Gortney said. The U.S. military has extensive recent experience in such combat missions; U.S. Air Force and Navy aircraft repeatedly attacked Iraq's air defenses during the 1990s while enforcing a no-fly zone over Iraq's Kurdish north.

Cruise missiles are the weapon of first choice in such campaigns; they do not put pilots at risk, and they use navigational technologies that provide good precision.

The first Tomahawk cruise missiles struck at 3 p.m. EDT, Gortney said, after a one-hour flight from the U.S. and British vessels on station in the Mediterranean.

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

The U.S. 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.

Gortney initially had said that it could take as long as 12 hours to assess the effectiveness of Saturday's strikes. Then a high-altitude Global Hawk unmanned surveillance plane would overfly the target areas to get a more precise view, the admiral said. He would not say how long the attacks on Libyan air defenses would last, but he stressed that Saturday's assault with cruise missiles was the first phase of a multi-stage mission.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, in a statement late Saturday, said, "I support the actions taken today by our allies, with the support of several Arab countries, to prevent the tyrant Moammar Qaddafi from perpetrating further atrocities on the people of Libya."

"And I support the president's decision to deploy U.S. assets to help those allies to enforce a no-fly zone to protect Libyan civilians as laid out in the United Nations resolution," the Nevada Democrat said. "This U.S. military action was not taken lightly, and it was done in concert with a broad international coalition."

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who was scheduled to fly to Russia on Saturday afternoon to begin a week-long overseas trip, postponed his departure for 24 hours. Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said Gates decided he should remain in Washington to monitor developments in Libya at the outset of U.S. strikes.

Gates had been skeptical of getting involved in Libya's civil war, telling Congress earlier this month that taking out Libya's air defenses was tantamount to war. Others have worried that the mission could put the U.S. on a slippery slope to deeper involvement in yet another Muslim country — on top of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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

At a news conference in Paris, Clinton said Gadhafi had left the world no choice but to intervene urgently and forcefully to protect further loss of civilian life.

"We have every reason to fear that, left unchecked, Gadhafi would commit unspeakable atrocities," she told reporters.

Clinton said there was no evidence that Gadhafi's forces were respecting an alleged cease-fire they proclaimed and the time for action was now.

"Our assessment is that the aggressive action by Gadhafi's forces continues in many parts of the country," she said. "We have seen no real effort on the part of the Gadhafi forces to abide by a cease-fire."

In addition to the three submarines and two destroyers, the U.S. Navy ships in the Mediterranean include two amphibious warships, the USS Kearsarge and USS Ponce, and a command-and-control ship, the USS Mount Whitney.