Third night of air strikes over Libya

• Air strikes in Libya continued for a third night • Libyan government claims more civilians killed • Disputes over whether Gaddafi legitimate target • Fighting continues on the ground Follow live updates here 8.16am: Air attacks on Libya are likely to slow, a US general has said, as Washington holds back from being sucked into the Libyan civil war. “My sense is that – that unless something unusual or unexpected happens, we may see a decline in the frequency of attacks,” General Carter Ham, who is leading US forces in the Libyan operation, told reporters in Washington. 8am: Good morning, welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the continuing military action in Libya. • A third successive night of air strikes against targets in Libya took place last night, with heavy anti-aircraft fire and explosions heard in Tripoli. Libyan state television reported that several sites in Tripoli had been subject to new attacks by what it called the “crusader enemy”. Al-Jazeera television said radar installations at two air defence bases in eastern Libya had been hit. However, a French armed forces spokesman said France, which has been involved in strikes in the east, had no planes in the air at the time. • A breach within Britain’s political and military leadership has opened up as David Cameron argued that the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, may be a legitimate target while the chief of the defence staff, Sir David Richards, said he was “absolutely not”. The clash fed concern on the third day of the air assault that the hastily assembled international alliance is struggling to paper over disagreements about its ultimate war aims, the future role of Nato and the legitimacy of the rebel groups. • Residents in two besieged rebel-held cities in western Libya, Misrata and Zintan, said they had been attacked by Gaddafi’s forces, Reuters reported. In Misrata, residents said people had gone out into the streets to try to stop Gaddafi’s forces entering the city. Zintan, near the Tunisian border, faced heavy shelling, two witnesses said, forcing residents to flee to mountain caves. Several houses were destroyed and a mosque minaret destroyed. “New forces were sent today to besiege the city. There are now at least 40 tanks at the foothills of the mountains near Zintan,” Abdulrahmane Daw told Reuters by phone from the town. • The US has showed signs of exasperation with its European partners amid confusion over who will take control of the Libyan operation from America. Facing questions at home about the US military getting bogged down in a third Muslim country, President Barack Obama said Washington would cede control of the Libyan operation in days, either to a Nato-led command or some Nato-style operation headed by France or Britain. Libya Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East Defence policy Protest Adam Gabbatt guardian.co.uk

Posted by on March 22, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.