Military action continues, operation's goals still unclear

  • Gen. Carter F. Ham, the head of United States Africa Command, who is in charge of the coalition effort, said there would be coalition airstrikes on Colonel Qaddafi’s mobile air defenses and that some eighty sorties — only half of them by the United States — had been flown on Monday.
  • A Libyan government spokesman, Ibrahim Musa, said “many people” had been killed in an air attack on Sirte airport, and that the southern town of Sebha - a stronghold for Col. Gaddafi’s tribe - had also been attacked. The claims could not be confirmed.
  • Fierce fighting was also reported in Misrata, 200 kilometers (130 miles) east of Tripoli, with rebels saying there had been a four-day bombardment by pro-Gaddafi forces and a number of deaths.
  • Earlier on Monday the coalition had sought to clarify whether Col. Gaddafi was considered a military target. It came after his sprawling Bab al-Aziziya complex in Tripoli was hit in an overnight air attack.
  • On Sunday U.K. Defense Secretary Liam Fox had said targeting Col. Gaddafi could “potentially be a possibility.”
  • General Ham said attacking Col. Gaddafi was not part of his mission.
  • Cameron told MPs that while he still wanted Col. Gaddafi to go, the UN resolution was “limited in scope” and “explicitly does not provide legal authority for action to bring about Gaddafi’s removal from power by military means.”
  • Between 70 and 80 coalition sorties were flown on Monday.
  • General Ham said there was “no intent to destroy completely the Libyan military.” He added, though: “If they stop and take up defensive positions, we can attack. It depends on where they are and what their intentions are. If they attack civilians, it is within our mandate to attack them.”
  • Gen. Ham said there had been no direct co-ordination with anti-Gaddafi rebels.
  • He also said the no-fly zone would soon expand to cover a 1,000 kilometers (620-mile) area.

On the political front

  • President Barack Obama has said the United States will transfer its leading role on Libya “within days” to ensure the burden of enforcing a UN resolution against Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is shared. The UN resolution was passed to protect civilians from Col. Gaddafi’s forces.
  • Obama pointed to past events when the United States had acted “unilaterally and without full international support” and had “ended up bearing the full burden.”
  • He said NATO would play a coordinating function but he said he would leave it to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, to describe later how the transfer would take place.
  • After a meeting in Brussels, NATO appeared not to have resolved differences over how to proceed. Moving the operation under full NATO control would require the agreement of all twenty-eight members.
  • The BBC’s Chris Morris in Brussels says Turkey and Germany have been reluctant for NATO to assume control, and France is not keen, either – but for different reasons. Turkey, NATO’s only Muslim member, and Germany are worried that NATO,under the influence of France and the United Kingdom, would push for a more aggressive policy toward Gaddafi, while France is worried that the alliance would not go far enough to force Gaddafi out of power.
  • French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Arab countries did not want the operation to be placed completely under NATO control, but he said he expected NATO to agree to play a supporting role within the next few days.
  • Italy has said it could take back its offer of military bases if NATO does not take control.
  • British PM David Cameron said the campaign would benefit from “NATO’s tried and tested machinery in command and control.”