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U.S. military invades Libya

March 19, 2011 · 210847 CommentsU.S.+military+invades+Libya2011-03-19+20%3A51%3A04Qalinle+Hussein

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military launched its first airstrikes on Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s air defenses, officials said Saturday.

U.S. Tomahawk missiles landed in the area around Tripoli and Misrata, a senior military official said, adding that the action was taken after Gadhafi failed to comply with a cease-fire.

“He’s clearly been on the offensive,” the official said of Gadhafi. “He said that he was going to do a cease-fire and he continued to move his forces into Benghazi.”

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U.S. President Barack Obama confirmed that he had authorized “limited military action in Libya” and that “that action has now begun.”

The attacks on Gadhafi’s forces will be part of a multiphase approach in a sequential and deliberate manner, according to the official.

“The U.S. will be at the front end of this, providing the unique capabilities that the U.S. has,” the official said.

Obama noted that military action “is not an outcome that the U.S. or any of our partners sought,” pointing out that Gadhafi was offered the opportunity to comply with an immediate cease-fire.

“But despite the hollow words of his government, he has ignored that opportunity,” Obama said. “His attacks on his own people have continued, his forces have been on the move,” and the danger for the Libyan people has grown.

The first phase of the operation will focus on limiting the regime’s ability to resist a no-fly zone, the military official said.

“In order to create the conditions that allows coalition forces to operate, we have to create the environment (in which) they can do that safely, and a key element of that is to go after the integrated air and missile defense systems that Gadhafi has out there,” said the official, who was not authorized to speak on the record.

The first airstrikes will take out Gadhafi’s air defenses in the western part of Libya, mostly concentrated around Tripoli and Misrata.

“Once we do that, that would open up the environment where we could enforce the no-fly zone throughout, from east to west of Libya,” the official said.

Phase two of the mission would then begin, with planes flying over Libyan airspace near Tripoli, and in the Mediterranean Sea near Benghazi.

The coalition says the no-fly zone imposed as part of a U.N. Security Council resolution aims to prevent further attacks by regime forces on Libyan citizens and opposition groups, especially around Benghazi.

In addition to the United States, four nations have publicly announced their participation: the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy and France. Other nations are expected to announce their participation soon.

The initial mission will be commanded by U.S. Army Gen. Carter Ham and U.S. Africa Command. The Joint Task Force’s “Odyssey Dawn” is being commanded by U.S. Navy Adm. Sam Locklear, on board the USS Mount Whitney in the Mediterranean Sea.

“The use of force is not our first choice, and is not a choice that I make lightly,” Obama said in a statement from Brazil where he is on a tour of Latin America. “But we cannot stand idly by when a tyrant tells his own people that there will be no mercy.”

From CNN’s Chris Lawrence

Source: CNN | 19 March 2011

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By Qalinle Hussein

Tags: France, Gaddafi, Libya, US military

Guuji says:

Ghadafi has weapons of Mass destruction, ohh wait that was Saddam! Arabs who are doing belly dance for this illegal invasion which is nothing but a goal to loot Libyan oil will be the ones facing the same bombs 20,30 or 40 years from this day. Its always the same. Arabs never learn. They should understand yesterday they supported ghadafi and saddam against your will, today they will pretend they are with you and use you to oppress others and that cycle will continue forever until Arabs tell the West stay out off our affairs.

The rebels in Eastern Libya do not care about freedom or people they just want power and the West wants oil. They are invading Libya before the Russians and Chinese convince the rebels to side with them. They passed the resolution in a rush and invaded Libya within hours. Why dont they do that in North Korea, Serbia when they were killing 10,000 muslims?

This is BS and it will only make al qaeda even more popular. The US will be stuck in another war front they will leave Afghanistan because Libya has more oil.

Now Americans know why Muslims don't like their government.

2:58 pm on March 19, 2011

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- mohamed says:
  
  Defending Ghadafi is like defending Hitler. This tyrant merciless power loving blood sucker brutally
  destroying the opposition and his own Civilian people at will and also known to have abused the country's wealth of oil revenue resources has no excuses to get away with such genocide criminal acts. Finally
  it becomes a great relief that the IC through the UN have decided to act to bring the lunatic madness of Ghadafi and his Regime to an end. The way things are happening he's in for a haul like Saddam
  unless he acts fast to submission to just leave Libya which's is still an open option. Otherwise he's in
  for a down fall and faces additional tribunal of the Hague ICC. Yemen is also no exception and looks
  like will follow the Libya consequences. There will be others too. The World is in for a big long haul of changes.
  Cheers.
  
  7:39 pm on March 19, 2011
  
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Guuji says:

I wonder why they are silent about Yemen which is even worse than Libya because unlike Libya where you have Rebels vs Ghaddafi, in Yemen we have a mad man on the loose killing all civilians by shooting them in the head or neck:

YEMEN

As the carnage continued, killing 52 and wounding hundreds more, victims were brought to a nearby mosque that had been turned into makeshift hospital.

Nearly all the bodies in the photographs had bullet wounds either in the forehead, neck or in the back of the head. There seems little doubt that this was the work of trained marksmen.

"It is a massacre," said opposition spokesman Mohammed al-Sabri. "This is part of a criminal plan to kill off the protesters, and the president and his relatives are responsible for the bloodshed."

Much of the sniper fire emanated from a building allegedly owned by a regional governor close to President Saleh, further evidence, the opposition said, of the regime's involvement in the killings.

Video footage showed a masked man crouching behind a balustrade on the building's roof.

YET ANOTHER OIL WAR BY GREEDY WEST.

3:11 pm on March 19, 2011

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- Peter says:
  
  I'm constantly shocked how double-sided many are when it comes to American and Western military power. America and the West set up a no-fly zone and bombed Ghadafi's military installations because the Arab League unanimously asked them to do so. Yet for some reason this apparently equals America and the West infringing upon the sovereignty of Arabs as a whole. In case you've missed the last ten years, the west was on good terms with Libya. We didn't NEED to do this and we could have gotten all the oil we wanted from Libya. "But don't bomb Libya," some say. "Instead bomb Yemen. Or bomb Bahrain. But whatever you bomb, just know that I'll change my mind and say that whatever you do, even if I ask you to do it, it's illegal and unjust and you're just doing it for oil."
  
  9:06 am on March 20, 2011
  
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  - Guji says:
    
    Dude, the truth is America and the West always puts its noses in places no one invited them. We saw the East Libyans arrest the British Special Forces and tell them, this is our war go home. When they got rejected like that they rushed to their usual godfather; the so called UN, which has no legitimacy what so ever. Its an organization by the West for the West, it should be called Western Union, ohh wait that already exists, how about Western Nations (WN).
    
    The truth is America and the West play the good boy card but we all know if they so serious they would reduce unemployment, homelessness, sick people in their own homes. America has more homeless per capita than even the most poor nations. Libya on the other hand, had almost zero homeless people, almost zero debt and the highest per capita income in Africa.
    
    Furthermore the West is now spreading lies about the Libyan economy even though few months ago they were writing, Libya economy booming, zero debt, oil wealth…now they want to justify their illegal aggression and erase the old entries, the CIA will this week update its "factbook" on Libya and erase the old facts.
    
    Few months ago, Libya awarded Los Angeles-based engineering giant AECOM, $80 billion just to construct 160,000 housing units, which would be given to CIVILIANS at no cost. America does not even provide a tent to its homeless sleeping in every street.
    
    Stop looting Muslim lands and solve your own issues. Almost 20% of your people are unemployed and you want to create employment by going to war and looting Muslim lands.
    
    2:59 pm on March 20, 2011
    
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Ali Asad says:

It is better to change the long old fashioned Arabian/African politics, after the people of those countries had endured and suffered a savage dictatorial rule for decades. It's not denying that many old dictators are also endeavouring to transfer the power to their sonswho also have a blood on their hands too. I think, now, it is time for fresh young minds to work through democratic good governance. This successful civilian upraising had made possible political change for those regions and I am impressed to see it happening one country after the other, in quick successions.
Musa

1:23 pm on March 20, 2011

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I Jamac says:

The biggest contender for the west is China. China has a fast growing economy for the past 10yrs. The population in china alone out numbers all the western countries. Not to mention many other countries in the East closing following this growth and number. The truth is the GCC and Oil rich countries are in demand. The demand out ways the supply. The USA want the OPEC agreement and such likes to be abolished since they cannot compete with the competitive prices any more. Therefore, the west are having to play the political card to get ahead. Its their only means of continuing to guzzle world resources at the rate the others don't. At world G summit the USA was set targets to reduce pollution and environmental change.

9:49 am on April 28, 2011

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