"Qatar joins in flights to enforce Libya no-fly zone; Becomes 1st Arab country to take part in operation" by Hadeel Al-Shalchi, Associated Press / March 26, 2011
TRIPOLI, Libya — Fellow Arab and African nations raised the international pressure yesterday on Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy, with tiny Qatar flying the Arab world’s first combat missions over his country and the African Union imploring him to move toward democratic elections.
Related: Arabs Angry at Libyan Airstrikes
Also see: Signing Off In Vermont
Yeah, I think I might start junking Al-Jazeera seeing the source.
The military operation against Khadafy, which yesterday included airstrikes by British and French jets, remains a US-led operation....
And will be no matter what you are told by the government or its mouthpiece.
Aside from the United Arab Emirates, which pledged 12 warplanes, the international effort to protect Khadafy’s opponents has no other countries from the Arab League, a 22-member group that was among the driving forces behind the UN Security Council decision to impose a no-fly zone over Libya.
That sure as hell ain't the way I remember it.
Yeah, they asked for help, and then licketysplit there was a U.N. resolution.
Related: Emiratis Call For Independence
I doubt they endorsed this.
The United States has provided millions of dollars in equipment to many of the league’s countries, including Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
That's why the Saudi occupation of Bahrain is minimized, and why Jordan coverage is so distorted.
A Health Ministry official said 114 Libyans have died in the international airstrikes, but he did not provide a breakdown of soldiers and civilians.
Murder, by any other name....
Army General Carter Ham said late Thursday that although he was not sure whether civilians died in airstrikes, “we have been very, very precise and discriminate in our targeting.’’ British Foreign Secretary William Hague went further, saying there have been “no confirmed civilian casualties’’ from airstrikes....
Don't they SAY THAT EVERY TIME they BOMB the HELL out of some place?
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"Rebels in Libya recapture major crossroads city; Victory is first big gain since strikes began" by Kareem Fahim and David D. Kirkpatrick, New York Times / March 27, 2011
AJDABIYA, Libya —The rebel victory was the first sign that the allied attacks, directed not only against Khadafy’s aircraft and defenses but also against his ground troops, were changing the dynamics of the battle for control of the country, erasing weeks of loss as the airstrikes opened the way....
Yup, we're winning now!
President Obama, in his weekly radio address, tried to reassure Americans that the mission was both important and effective. “Today, I can report that thanks to our brave men and women in uniform, we’ve made important progress,’’ he said, adding, “We are succeeding in our mission.’’
What's that, killing Libyans?
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At a news conference in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, Deputy Foreign Minister Khalid Kaim repeated accusations that the airstrikes have killed dozens of civilians, though the Khadafy government has not yet presented evidence of those deaths....
That never seem to bother the slavish AmeriKan media when it comes to the AmeriKan government.
The air campaign, dominated by US, British, and French forces and mostly coordinated by the United States in its initial week, is to be turned over to NATO oversight under an agreement by the allies in recent days. But it is unclear how long it will take for a complete handover, and the Obama administration has been pressed at home to assure a US electorate that the United States will not be drawn into another long war.
(Blog editor totally disheartened at this point; I'm so sick of being lied to by this government)
The rebel forces are still outgunned on the ground by Khadafy’s better-equipped militia, the rebel battle lines are still hundreds of miles from the capital, and there is no indication of an imminent uprising in the west against the government.
There was evidence yesterday that the allied military effort was having an effect not just in the rebel-held east, but in the west as well.
Readers, they JUST SAID.... ARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
In Misurata, where Libya’s military has kept up a tight siege against the last opposition redoubt in the western part of the country, rebel commanders said the allied airstrikes had allowed them to hold out.
Fighting around Misurata erupted again yesterday, according to a rebel spokesman using the name Aiman. He said tanks and artillery resumed firing into the city yesterday morning until three waves of airstrikes forced them back.
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Related: Woman bursts into hotel to tell of rapes
Smells like a staged incident to me.
"US role in Libya lauded, criticized; 2 Hub rallies take opposite stances on military effort" by Matt Byrne, Globe Correspondent / March 27, 2011
Several dozen demonstrators gathered yesterday at Copley Square to express gratitude for the international military effort in Libya that they said has already saved an untold number of civilian lives in the conflict between rebels and the forces of Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy.
This is making me sick, readers.
Demonstrators at a smaller Boston rally argued against US involvement in Libya....
Yeah, right. The war-weary American people are always outnumbered according to war-promoting paper.
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But we're winning!!!!
"Libya rebels capture Khadafy hometown, ex-official says; NATO agrees to take command of coalition strikes" by Kareem Fahim and David D. Kirkpatrick, New York Times / March 28, 2011
AJDABIYA, Libya — Rebels captured Surt, the hometown of Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy, the country’s former ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammed Abdel Rahman Shalgham, told Al Jazeera.
Told AJ? Wait a day.
Shalgam, who defected to join the opposition, was speaking from New York, Bloomberg News reported today. He said he got the information from the rebel leaders.
The capture of Khadafy’s hometown came after rebels backed by allied warplanes recaptured two strategic oil towns as they erased recent losses.
The rebel gains set the stage for the battle for Surt, considered a potentially decisive objective in the war for Libya.
The gains underscore the essential role that Western airstrikes — now focused mainly on Khadafy ground troops since the elimination of his air defenses — have played in turning around the rebels’ fortunes.
This is gross propaganda, dear readers.
See what the poor American people are subjected to if they happen by a newspaper or its website?
Libyan state television reported that Surt had been bombed in air raids late last night. Heavy bombardment of Tripoli also began after nightfall.
At a meeting yesterday in Brussels, NATO agreed to take over the entire military mission in Libya, including the airstrikes targeting the Libyan military. The decision effectively relieved the United States of leading the fight and ended a week of squabbling among the allies over the issue.
The agreement by NATO, which works by unanimity, was announced by the alliance secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
The airstrikes, which began a week ago, have quickly reversed the military balance along the eastern coast. The rebel advance yesterday moved the eastern front farther west than it had been at the peak of rebel gains several weeks ago....
In western Libya, however, the rebel-held city of Misurata was still under siege by loyalist forces and by yesterday evening rebels were again reporting street fighting in the center of the city and shelling from Khadafy tanks around the outside.
The rebels said earlier in the day that allied airstrikes had kept up through the night, destroying a major ammunition depot that exploded in a blaze of light.
Allied airstrikes outside Misurata had kept up through the previous night, rebels said, destroying a major ammunition depot that exploded in a blaze of light. It was still burning 13 hours after the initial blast, said Muhammad, a rebel spokesman there whose full name was withheld for his family’s safety.
Speaking over a satellite hook-up and hospital generator, he contradicted statements from the Qaddafi government that it had restored power and water to the city. He said that rebels had used a local generator to restore electricity to about half the city. But he said that water remained cut off and that residents were using a small supply from a desalination facility there. The reports were impossible to confirm because the Qaddafi government has prevented journalists from reaching the city.
In Tripoli on Sunday, most stores were closed. Usually busy streets were deserted. Officials said the port had been closed to ships carrying refined fuel as well as food and other goods. Gasoline was in increasingly short supply, and lines of cars at gas stations stretched for several blocks. Some motorists said they had turned out before dawn for a chance to fill up, or waited in line for more than two hours to reach the pump. Residents also stood in long lines for bread at bakeries, mainly because the migrant workers Libyans rely on to bake and do other service jobs have fled the country....
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"Libyan troops dig in to defend Khadafy’s hometown" by Ryan Lucas, Associated Press / March 29, 2011
BIN JAWAD, Libya — Rebel forces bore down yesterday on Moammar Khadafy’s hometown of Surt, a key government stronghold where a brigade headed by one of the Libyan leader’s sons was digging in to defend the city and setting the stage for a bloody and possibly decisive battle.
I'm sorry, but I WAS TOLD YESTERDAY that they had ALREADY CAPTURED IT! WTF?
The opposition made new headway in its rapid advance westward through oil towns and along stretches of empty desert highway toward Surt and beyond to the big prize — the capital, Tripoli.
But the rebels remain woefully outgunned by Khadafy’s forces, who had swept the insurgents from their positions in eastern Libya before the international intervention forced government troops to withdraw.
Rebel leaders acknowledged that they could not have held their ground over the last week without international air and cruise missile strikes, and General Carter F. Ham, the ranking American in the coalition operation, warned that the rebel gains could be quickly reversed without continued air support.
Where have we HEARD THAT BEFORE, Americans?
Libya state television reported new NATO air strikes after nightfall in the cities of Garyan and Mizda about 40 miles and 90 miles respectively from Tripoli.
NATO insisted that it was seeking only to protect civilians and not to give air cover to an opposition march. But that line looked set to become even more blurred.
Yeah, protect civilian by blowing them up, whooooooshhhhh!
The airstrikes now are clearly enabling rebels bent on overthrowing Khadafy to push toward the final line of defense on the road to the capital.
Vice Admiral William Gortney, staff director for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the United States was hitting Libyan targets with Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt aircraft, designed to provide battlefield support to friendly ground forces.
Also joining the battle, he said, were Air Force AC-130 gunships, a low-flying aircraft armed with a 105mm howitzer and a 40mm cannon. Those two types of aircraft give the United States more ability to confront pro-Khadafy forces in urban areas with less risk of civilian casualties.
But we AIN'T LEADING NUTHIN' and have been relieved of the fight!!!!
There was growing criticism from Russia and other countries that the international air campaign is overstepping the bounds of the UN resolution that authorized it.
Hey, we are the Empire. Talk to the hand.
The complaints came at a critical transition in the campaign from a US to a NATO command. The change threatens to hamper the operation, as some of the 28 NATO member nations plan to limit their participation to air patrols, rather than attacks on ground targets....
How much you wanna bet the U.S. never hands off a damn thing?
The official Tunisian news agency said late yesterday that Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa of Libya arrived in Tunis on what it called a private visit. Koussa crossed into the country through the Ras Jedir border crossing.
Implication is a defection, right?
See: Tunisia Takeover
Ah, a safe haven.
Some residents were fleeing Surt as soldiers from a brigade commanded by Khadafy’s son al-Saadi and his militiamen streamed to positions on the city’s outskirts, witnesses said. Surt was hit by airstrikes Sunday night and yesterday morning, witnesses said, but they did not know what was targeted.
WTF? I was told the town had been captu.... awwwwww, what's the use?!!
Surt, which houses a significant air and military base, is crucial both for its strategic position and its symbolic value. Over the years, Khadafy has made it effectively Libya’s second capital, building up what had been a quiet agricultural community into a city of 150,000 with lavish conference halls where Arab and African summits were held.
Fighting in such a densely populated area is likely to complicate the rebels’ advance and add to the ambiguity of the NATO-led campaign, authorized by a Security Council resolution to take all necessary measures to protect civilians.
In Russia, which abstained from the UN vote, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said strikes on Khadafy’s forces would amount to taking sides in what he called Libya’s civil war, and thus breach the mandate that was initially envisaged as establishing a no-fly zone only to protect civilians.
But the inclusion of language allowing “all necessary means’’ opened the door to airstrikes and cruise missile attacks on Khadafy’s forces to stop attacks on cities and cut supply lines.
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I should quit reading the Boston Globe.
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I should quit reading the Boston Globe.
