Coalition launches Libya attacks

US and UK cruise missiles hit more than 20 Libyan air defence targets, Pentagon officials said

UK, US and France have attacked Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi's forces in the first action to enforce a UN-mandated no-fly zone.


Pentagon officials say the US and the UK have fired more than 110 missiles, while French planes struck pro-Gaddafi forces attacking rebel-held Benghazi.

Col Gaddafi has vowed retaliation and said he will open arms depots to the people to defend Libya.

Missiles struck air defence sites in the capital, Tripoli, and Misrata.

A French plane fired the first shots against Libyan government targets at 1645 GMT, destroying a number of military vehicles, according to a military spokesman.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron confirmed that British planes are in action over Libya.
Despite the fact that it was French war planes which launched the first attacks, it's clear that this early phase of the operations is an overwhelmingly American affair - all but a very small number of cruise missiles have been fired from American ships and submarines.

Only they have the capability to inflict the sort of damage to Libya's air defences that's needed before a no-fly zone can be safely patrolled, a point alluded to by President Obama even as he repeated the limits of American involvement.

President Obama has launched these attacks with great reluctance and seems anxious that this not be interpreted as yet another American-led foray into the Arab world.

But for all his desire to be seen to take a back seat, he and everyone else knows that this sort of thing doesn't happen unless Washington is deeply involved.
US President Barack Obama, speaking during a visit to Brazil, said the US was taking "limited military action" as part of a "broad coalition".

"We cannot stand idly by when a tyrant tells his people there will be no mercy," he said.
He repeated that no US ground troops would take part.

After the missile bombardment and the air strikes, Col Gaddafi made a brief speech calling on people to resist.

"Civilian and military targets in the air and sea will be liable to serious danger in the Mediterranean," he said.

"Arms depots are now open and the masses are being equipped with all sorts of weapons in defence of Libya's independence, unity and honour," the Libyan leader warned.

'Necessary'

A British submarine has fired a number of missiles at Libyan air defence targets, the Ministry of Defence said.

Mr Cameron said that launching military action against Libya was "necessary, legal and right".

Libyan state TV reported that what it called the "crusader enemy" had bombed civilian areas of Tripoli, as well as fuel storage tanks supplying the western city of Misrata.

Sources in Tripoli told BBC Arabic that the attacks on the city had so far targeted the eastern areas of Sawani, Airport Road, and Ghasheer. These are all areas believed to host military bases.

After midnight on Sunday, heavy bursts of anti-aircraft fire arced into the sky above Tripoli and several explosions were heard.

The strikes on Misrata targeted a military airbase, the Reuters news agency reported, quoting two residents who denied the state TV reports that fuel stores were hit.
Allied forces

UK: Providing Typhoon and Tornado jet fighters; surveillance planes; HMS Westminster and HMS Cumberland; submarines
France: Carried out mission with at least 12 warplanes including Mirage fighters and Rafale jets; deploying aircraft carrier, warships
US: Firing guided missiles from USS Barry and USS Stout; providing amphibious warships, and command-and-control ship USS Mount Whitney
Italy: Nato base at Naples understood to be central hub; other Mediterranean bases made available
Canada: Providing six F-18 fighter jets and 140 personnel

UN's calculated gamble

Libya no-fly zone: Aircraft

The cruise missiles were fired from one British submarine and a number of American destroyers and subs, said a Pentagon official.

The missiles hit more than 20 air defence sites along the Mediterranean coast, said Navy Vice Adm William E Gortney.

The action came hours after Western and Arab leaders met in Paris to agree how to enforce the UN resolution, which allows "all necessary measures" to protect civilians from forces loyal to Col Gaddafi.


Benghazi battle

Earlier on Saturday, pro-Gaddafi forces attacked Benghazi despite declaring a ceasefire a day earlier.

Reports from the city said that government tanks and artillery had bombarded the city and there was fighting around the university.

Rebels in the city said thousands of people were fleeing the attack, heading east, and the UN refugee agency said it was preparing to receive 200,000 refugees from Libya.

Journalists later said the bombardment ended in the later afternoon and that rebel forces were in control of Benghazi.

The Libyan government blamed the rebels for breaking the ceasefire and said its forces had fought back in self defence.

French planes are reported to have hit government tanks and armoured vehicles around Benghazi.

French planes also flew reconnaissance missions over "all Libyan territory", military sources in Paris said earlier.

In addition, Canada is sending warplanes to the region, while Italy has offered the use of its military bases. A naval blockade against Libya is also being put in place.

The international community was intervening to stop the "murderous madness" of Col Gaddafi, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said.

"In Libya, the civilian population, which is demanding nothing more than the right to choose their own destiny, is in mortal danger," he warned. "It is our duty to respond to their anguished appeal."

Shortly after the airstrikes began, Libyan state TV said a French plane had been shot down near Tripoli. However, French military officials said all their planes had returned safely.

Col Gaddafi has ruled Libya for more than 40 years. An uprising against him began last month after long-time leaders of neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt were toppled

Bahrain crisis: Saudi soldier and a protester killed.

Tuesday 15 March 2011 .A Saudi Arabian soldier has reportedly been shot dead after Saudi troops entered Bahrain as it cracks down on protests. An expert on Iran tells Channel 4 News that Tehran is unlikely to intervene.


more than 1,000 Saudi troops have entered the tiny island state, as have soldiers from other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar and Kuwait. The troops are from the Gulf countries' Peninsula Shield Force and Bahrain authorities have sent more than 100 armoured vehicles to Pearl Roundabout, the epicentre of the anti-government protests.

Officials in Riyadh said a Saudi soldier has been shot dead by a protester, and another report said a protester was killed in clashes with police in the Sitra area.

Saudi and fellow Gulf troops entered Bahrain following a request from its neighbour. Riyadh said that "any harm done to the security of a member state is considered a harm done to the security of all GCC members."

Bahrain’s protesters denounced the deployment of troops, with the largest Shi'ite party Wefaq saying that any intervention by Gulf Arab forces is a declaration of war and occupation.

A month of clashes between Shiite protesters and security forces intensified on Sunday, with more than 100 people injured as demonstrators demanded democracy through elections from their Sunni monarch (King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa)."

Two weeks ago, protesters could hardly have expected this: Bahrain's police and armed forces ceased clashes on 19 February, after a week of unrest that saw the death of six anti-government demonstrators.

But now Bahrain state TV has announced a three-month state of emergency has been declared to try to quell continuing political unrest threatening the monarchy, and King Hamad said in a statement that the nation's Armed Forces chief is authorised to 'take all measures ' to crush protests.
Who Knows Who: Bahrain's sectarian gulfIran has echoed the protesters' criticism, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast saying: "The presence of foreign troops and meddling into Bahrain’s internal affairs will only further complicate the issue."

Hours after the statement, Bahrain recalled its ambassador to Iran.

The presence of US-backed Saudi Arabia in Bahrain was sure to perturb Tehran, but Arshin Dr Adib-Moghaddan from the School of Oriental and African Studies, and an expert on Iranian foreign policy, told Channel 4 News that the island does not have the potential to be another Vietnam, i.e. a proxy war between the US and Iran.

"If there would be a sustained period of confrontation, and systematic killings of the demonstrators, Iran may be dragged into the conflict. [However] I don't think we would see Iranian boots on the ground; a major diplomatic escalation is more likely," said Dr Adib-Moghaddan, the author of Iran in World Politics.

"Neither Iran nor the US has an interest in a proxy war. In fact both the Obama administration and the Iranian Foreign Ministry say the same: Bahrainis have legitimate demands that need to be met by the monarchy. It is ironic and indicative of a failed strategy towards Iran, that the country can not be included in a solution to the conflict in Bahrain and elsewhere in the region for that matter."

Indeed, the White House has been non-committal and reserved with its comments about GCC forces entering Bahrain, consistent with its remote stance on the Arab uprisings in general.

White House spokesman Tommy Vietor has said that the US does not consider the entry of Saudi Arabian security forces into Bahrain an invasion, but urged Bahrain to exercise restraint.

"We urge our GCC partners to show restraint and respect the rights of the people of Bahrain, and to act in a way that supports dialogue instead of undermining it," Mr Vietor said.

Both Iran and the US are in difficult positions in Bahrain. In the case of the former, a failure to act in Bahrain could be perceived as weakness.

"Iran is likely to step up its rhetoric in accordance with events on the ground in Bahrain. It will use a rhetoric of strength to forestall to be perceived as weak," said Dr Adib-Moghaddan. And among other concerns for the US, its 5th Fleet’s basing in jeopardy.

But whatever happens in Bahrain, it is unlikely to trigger a physical conflict between Iran and the US: there is too much to lose, added Dr Adib-Moghaddan.

"With Iran, it is first gear: diplomacy, second gear: multilateral/regional diplomacy, third gear: regional 'gunboat' diplomacy, and then the options are exhausted."

Meanwhile, the British embassy in Bahrain has closed as fears grow that a bloody crackdown of the protests in the offing. The Foreign Office has advised against all travel to Bahrain.

Al Qaeda Targets Libya

NEW YORK – The terror cell sees Gaddafi’s bloody civil conflict as the perfect chance to swoop in and turn the war-torn country into an Islamic state. By Ron Moreau and Sami Yousafzai.


Libyans with connections to Al Qaeda are racing to find ways to send people home, in hope of steering the anti-Gaddafi revolt in a radical Islamist direction, according to several senior Afghan Taliban sources in contact with Al-Qaeda.

“This rebellion is the fresh breeze they’ve been waiting years for,” says an Afghan Taliban operative who helps facilitate the movement of Al Qaeda militants between the tribal area and Pakistani cities. “Some say they are ready to go back at this critical moment.” The operative, who has just returned from Pakistan’s lawless tribal area on the Afghanistan border, adds: “They realize that if they don’t use this opportunity, it could be the end of their chances to turn Libya toward a real Islamic state, as Afghanistan once was.”

So far, Muammar Qaddafi’s clumsy efforts to blame Al Qaeda for the popular uprising against his dictatorship would be a joke, if only he weren’t using that claim as an excuse for mowing down so many Libyans. In fact, it’s been many years since Libya has seen significant numbers of radical Islamists—or any other organized opposition, for that matter. Nearly all have been killed, locked up or chased into exile years ago by the regime’s secret police and security forces. Although the country’s most feared insurgent entity, the Al Qaeda-affiliated Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (known in Arabic as Al-Jama’a al-Islamiyah al-Muqatilah bi-Libya), has been seeking to topple Gaddafi since the early 1990s, it’s unlikely that more than a handful who pledge allegiance to Osama bin Laden remain inside Libya.

Seizing the moment, however, Al Qaeda’s top ranking Libyan, Abu Yahya al-Libi, the movement’s senior Islamist ideologue and bin Laden’s head of operations for Afghanistan, broke his public silence over the Libyan revolt this past weekend. He issued a call to arms to his countrymen in a 30-minute video that was posted on Al Qaeda-linked Internet sites, urging Libyans to fight on and do to Qaddafi what he has done to them over the years: kill him. "Now it is the turn of Qaddafi [to die] after he made the people of Libya suffer for more than 40 years," he said. “Retreating will mean decades of harsher oppression and greater injustices than what you have endured." He also called for the institution of Islamic law once an Arab nation has cast off its former, Western-supported rulers. Overthrowing these Western-backed Arab regimes, he added, was "a step to reach the goal of every Muslim, which is to make the word of Allah the highest."

“This rebellion is the fresh breeze they’ve been waiting years for,” says an Afghan Taliban operative.

Several Libyans have held top roles in Al Qaeda’s leadership. Some traveled to Afghanistan in the 1980s to fight the Soviets and stayed, eventually teaming up with bin Laden after his return from Sudan in 1996. Taliban sources estimate there were some 200 Libyans with bin Laden in Afghanistan at the time of the 9/11 attacks. Since then some of bin Laden’s senior-most operational aides have been Libyans. One was Abu Faraj al-Libi, who was captured by Pakistan forces in 2005 and is now a prisoner in Guantanamo Bay; another was Abu Lais al-Libi, his replacement as Al Qaeda’s third in command, who died in a U.S. Predator attack in 2008. Apart from his hard-line sermons and jihadist exhortations that are widely distributed on DVD and posted on jihadist Website, Yahya may be be best known for his daring escape along with four [make that three other] other Al Qaeda prisoners from the high-security lockup at the American airbase at Bagram in July 2005.Yahya, who is believed to be in his late 40s, is smarter, more charismatic, a more articulate speaker and a more learned Islamic scholar than either Faraj or Lais, according to Afghan Taliban sources.

Now he’s said to be eager to go home, like most other Libyans in the Afghan borderlands. “They desperately want to at least get a foothold in the new Libya,” the Taliban facilitator says. The long, dangerous trip from Pakistan’s tribal areas to Libya—via Afghanistan, Iran, Iraqi Kurdestan and Turkey—can take weeks if not months. Nevertheless, at least one Taliban source says Yahya made the trip two years ago and returned safely, although no one else seems able to confirm that story. And even if he or other Al Qaedea Libyans manage to get home again, the Taliban facilitator says they know they’ll have a tough time influencing the largely prodemocracy uprising. “They know they must tread cautiously, and not push too hard, for too much, too soon,” he says. Instead, he says, they expect to take a moderate line at first, while quietly trying to persuade rebel leaders that the preservation of Libyan sovereignty against Western “colonialists” depends on taking an anti-Israeli, anti-American line. Any move toward imposing Islamic sharia law, Yahya’s specialty, will have to come later.

Still, Taliban sources say, if Yahya is successful in reaching rebel-held territory inside Libya, at least he’ll be able to operate with relative freedom, without worrying about Gaddafi’s secret police. There’s one question: will bin Laden grant leave to Al Qaeda’s senior operations man for Afghanistan to undertake such a hazardous journey? The betting among the Taliban is that he will—and he may already have a replacement in mind. “Al Qaeda will not leave this place empty,” says the facilitator.

Sami Yousafzai is Newsweek's correspondent in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where he has covered militancy, Al Qaeda and the Taliban for the magazine since 9/11. He was born in Afghanistan but moved to Pakistan with his family after the Russian invasion in 1979. He began his career as a sports journalist but switched to war reporting in 1997.

Ron Moreau is Newsweek’s Afghanistan and Pakistan correspondent and has been covering the region for the magazine the past 10 years. Since he first joined Newsweek during the Vietnam War, he has reported extensively from Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.

Japan quake: Fukushima plant alarming, says Naoto Kan

Naoto Kan said: "We as Japanese people can overcome these hardships

The casing of a reactor at Fukushima 1 plant exploded on Saturday, and another faces meltdown, but officials said only minimal radiation had been released.


authorities ordered nationwide power outages after being forced to close all the country's nuclear plants.

The quake and a tsunami killed hundreds and left thousands missing, sparking a huge rescue operation.

The government has pumped 7 trillion yen ($86bn; £54bn) into the economy to prop up the markets - which slumped on opening.

Cooling malfunction

Japanese broadcaster NHK says the total number of confirmed deaths caused by the disaster now stands at 1,596.

Continue reading the main story
At the scene.

We headed towards where the tsunami hit land, close to the little village of Higashiro. We had to pick our way through a sea of mud.

What should have been a road was covered in broken branches, a squashed tractor and lots of electricity cables that had been brought down. The destruction goes on and on.

The seashore was in the distance behind a row of trees. Here the waves toppled houses; they lie at crazy angles. Trees have been smashed into the buildings. A motorcycle lies twisted and bent.

Inside the houses, the furniture has been turned to matchsticks, possessions tossed everywhere, and on a few walls are portraits with the faces of those who once lived here, now stained by the waters which filled everything.

As you gaze over the wrecked landscape, it feels as if the natural order of things has been shaken, and nobody knows when it will settle down again.

'There is nothing here, everything is gone'
Local officials have suggested many thousands more are missing across the north-east of Honshu island, but the situation remains unclear.

Japan's nuclear plants closed down automatically when the earthquake struck, and appear to have withstood the tremor.
But experts believe the massive tsunami that followed damaged cooling systems and wrecked the back-up power supply at Fukushima 1.
Technicians have been battling to control the pressure and temperature in the reactors for days, pumping in seawater and releasing vapour containing radioactive elements.

But the casing around one reactor exploded on Saturday, and senior officials conceded late on Sunday that a similar explosion was still possible at another reactor.

Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from the area around the plant.
At least 22 people are now said to be being treated for the effects of exposure to radiation.

But the government says the amount of radioactive material released from the plant is so far still minimal.

And experts say the risk of a disaster on the scale of Chernobyl in the 1980s is highly unlikely because the reactors are built to a much higher standard and have much more rigorous safety measures.

Economic blow

Earlier, Mr Kan said the earthquake had thown Japan into "the most severe crisis since World War II".





Click to play

Naoto Kan said: "We as Japanese people can overcome these hardships"
He announced that from Monday, the country would have to endure rolling power cuts, and urged citizens to conserve energy.

The BBC's Mariko Oi in Tokyo says it is still not clear when the power outages will begin.

But she says the government has advised people not to go to work or school on Monday because the transport network cannot deal with demand.

And the capital is also still experiencing regular powerful aftershocks.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of relief workers, soldiers and police have been deployed to the disaster area.

Rescue workers have found scenes of total devastation in isolated coastal towns north-east of the main port city of Sendai, which was itself partially destroyed by the waves.

Preliminary estimates put repair costs from the earthquake and tsunami in the tens of billions of dollars, a huge blow for the Japanese economy that - while the world's third largest - has been ailing for two decades.

Are you in Japan? Do you live near Fukushima? Have you been affected by the earthquake? Or are you a Japanese citizen living abroad? You can send us details of your experiences using the form below.

Bahrain: Fighting for change - People & Power - Al Jazeera English

Bahrain: Fighting for change - People & Power - Al Jazeera English