France military getting into Libya

[la_vie_noire]

France fires on Libyan military vehicle.

A French official says a French fighter jet has fired on a Libyan military vehicle, in a first reported strike in the international campaign to enforce a no-fly zone.

Comments

[the_future_modernes]

so so scary. I hope so hard that this ends well for the Libyans.

[the_future_modernes]

Also: here are some tumblrs following the situation in Libya: protests4democracy and Heck Yeah Libyan Revolution, Shergawia

It appears that a wellknown citizen journalist, Mohammad Nabbous, was killed in a firefight while reporting live in Benghazi yesterday. He created the Libya AlHurra TV Livestream

[the_future_modernes]

Al Jazeera says: Airstrikes begin on Libya targets
French warplanes attack tanks and US launches cruise missiles, as international military intervention begins.

So Gadafi had attacked Benghazi right before the planes came:

[the_future_modernes]

Benghazi rebels plead for Libya air strikes as Gaddafi forces advance

"Where are the air strikes? Why is the west waiting until it is too late?" asked Khalid el-Samad, a 27-year-old chemical engineer, who shook his finger in fury. "Sarkozy said it. Obama said it. Gaddafi must stop. So why do they do nothing? Is it just talk while we die?"

The de facto capital of Libya's revolution awoke to discover that its wild celebrations over the UN security council's declaration of a no-fly zone and Muammar Gaddafi's calling of a ceasefire on Friday were premature. Benghazi's residents had imagined the city was saved by the west's threat of air strikes unless Gaddafi halted his attacks on Libya's rebellious towns.

But at dawn the dictator's army was fighting its way into the country's second largest city of about 700,000 people using rockets and tanks. Benghazi reeled in shock as the rebels initially fell back and then fought hard to contain the assault while artillery fire rocked parts of the city for much of the day.MORE

I was wondering why it had started so quickly, people had been speculating about strikes taking up to a week to start.

Who is the part of the alliance to enforce the no-fly zone?

[the_future_modernes]

Twitter posting

The four Arab countries to take part in military operations revealed as UAE, Qatar, Jordan, Morocco. #Libya about 9 hours ago via web Retweeted by 66 people

iyad_elbaghdadi
Iyad El-Baghdadi

The Western countries so far include the US, Italy, France, Canada and the UK.

[the_future_modernes]

Who the hell comes UP with the names of miltary operations>

Operation Odyssey Dawn? Really?

Anyway: Al Jazeera reports that four journalists of their have been grabbed:

11:06pm

Four Al Jazeera journalists have been detained by Libyan authorities in the west of the country.

Lotfi al-Messaoudi (a Tunisian), Ahmed Vall Ould Addin (a Mauritanian), Ammar al-Hamdan (a Norwegian cameraman) and Kamel Atalua (British) were held while working in the west of the country.

Al Jazeera says that the Libyan authorities will be held accountable for the safety, security and well-being of the team, who are being held in Tripoli.



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10:17pm

A high-level African Union panel on the Libyan crisis has rejected "any kind of foreign military intervention" in Libya.

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10:12pm

The Pentagon says that the UAE and Qatar will also be involved in military operations in Libya, but will announce their involvement themselves.

The operation falls under the operational command of the US African Command, under General Carter Hamm. Tactical execution is being run out of the USS Mount Whitney, Admiral Sam Locklear commanding.

Off the coast of Libya, there are: 11 vessels from Italy, 11 from the US (including three submarines, each with 100 missiles on board), one from the UK, one from France and one from Canada.

The no-fly zone will encompass Tripoli, Sabha, Natoura, Misurata and Benghazi.MORE

Interesting that the submarines have 100 missiles each: The Guardian Liveblog

• British and US forces have fired more than 110 Tomahawk missiles at targets in Libya. The Pentagon said the aim of the operation was to take out the Libyan air defence systems in order that piloted aircraft could enforce the UN-mandated no-fly zone.


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• Al-Jazeera is reporting that Libya's rebel military council has been co-ordinating with international forces to identify the locations of Gadaffi's forces. Earlier in the day, the rebels lost their only aircraft when it was shot down over Benghazi, possibly by their own side.MORE

[the_future_modernes]

libyafeb17 has more news for a variety of sources.