Allies’ Control of Libyan Airspace Puts Qaddafi’s Forces at Risk
By - Mar 22, 2011 6:12 AM GMT+0530
One of the six Danish F16 fighter jets based in Italian military airport of Sigonella. Photographer: Mario Laporta/AFP/Getty Images
Allied forces are expanding their air campaign over Libya in an effort to thwart Muammar Qaddafi’s fighters and enable rebels to control cities, such as opposition capital of Benghazi, that had been under attack by troops loyal to the regime.
President Barack Obama said the U.S. expects to hand over military leadership to allies within days once the initial phase -- knocking out air defenses to support the no-fly zone -- is complete.
The most recent military actions “are focused on extending the no-fly zone southward, then westward from Benghazi,” General Carter Ham, the U.S. commander for combat operations against Libya, said in Stuttgart, Germany, yesterday. He said that his mandate does not including targeting Qaddafi himself and that it is “possible” the Libyan dictator would remain in power for some period of time.
Rebel forces pushed out from Benghazi toward the outskirts of the embattled city of Ajdabiya, which is surrounded by pro- Qaddafi forces, the Associated Press reported. Qaddafi’s forces killed 40 people and wounded hundreds in an attack on the town of Misrata, a rebel stronghold east of Tripoli, al-Arabiya television reported, citing the Libyan opposition.
Oil Markets
The allied bombardment, which began March 19, moved oil markets yesterday as fighting threatened to prolong supply disruptions. Crude oil for April delivery increased $1.26 to $102.33 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest settlement since March 10. The April contract expires today. The more actively traded May futures advanced $1.24, or 1.2 percent, to $103.09.
Libyan rebels in Benghazi said they have created a new national oil company to replace the corporation controlled by Qaddafi. Its assets were frozen by the United Nations Security Council.
In other regional developments, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh lost support from elements of the military and the government deployed tanks to protect the presidential palace. Syrian security forces killed five people and injured dozens of others since March 18 during protests in the southern town of Daraa, Human Rights Watch said. And Saudi Arabian security forces arrested 89 Shiite Muslims in the Eastern Province last week, activist Ahmed al-Mushaikhes said in a telephone interview.
In Libya, there is no evidence of a change of policy from Qaddafi since he claimed a cease-fire March 20, the chief U.K. spokesman, Major General John Lorimer, said yesterday. “Opposition sources are saying that Qaddafi is removing forces from Benghazi and targeting elsewhere,” he said in an e-mail.
UN Mandate
Stressing that his UN mandate is to protect civilians, Ham said that allied airstrikes may not “completely destroy” Qaddafi’s forces. Asked about Qaddafi retaining power, he told Pentagon reporters by teleconference, “I could envision that as a possible situation, at least for the current mission that I have.”
“I have no mission to attack that person,” he said. “And we are not doing so. We are not seeking his whereabouts or anything like that. We think we have been very effective in degrading his ability to control his regime forces.”
His comments may be necessary to satisfy a coalition that includes Arab states and to respect the limitations of the UN Security Council accord. Still, an inconclusive outcome is not what Western leaders have presented as the expected results, and a divided Libya may risk an open-ended conflict.
‘All Necessary Measures’
Obama and other alliance leaders, including U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, have declared that their political objective is to force Qaddafi from power after more than four decades. The UN Security Council resolution permitting “all necessary measures” is limited to protecting civilians.
The military operation is “not about regime change,” Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, told reporters traveling with the president inSouth America.
Cameron, addressing Parliament yesterday, made the same point: “I have been clear: I think Libya needs to get rid of Qaddafi but, in the end, we are responsible for trying to enforce the Security Council resolution; the Libyans must choose their own future.”
The U.K. House of Commons voted overwhelmingly to back military action to enforce the UN no-fly zone. The vote today was 557 lawmakers in favor and 13 against.
Troops on the Ground?
Obama said he would not put any U.S. combat troops on the ground in Libya. U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague yesterday refused to rule out sending U.K. special forces, saying only that there would be no occupation of Libya. Coalition forces in Afghanistan have used elite soldiers to target tanks and other heavy weapons for air attacks.
The opening phase of Operation Odyssey Dawn included at least 124 Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from U.S. and U.K. destroyers and submarines, global positioning system-guided bombs dropped from U.S. B-2 stealth bombers flying from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, and laser-guided GBU-12 Paveway II bombs dropped from AV-8B Harrier jump jets flying from the USS Kearsarge off Libya’s coast.
The attacks targeted early warning radars, communication centers and surface-to-air missile sites in and around Tripoli and Misrata, aircraft hangers at the Ghardabiya airfield, and an armored convoy south of Benghazi. The coalition struck a command-and-control facility in a Qaddafi compound in Tripoli, Ham confirmed.
International Action
The coalition flew between 70 and 80 sorties yesterday, with more than half conducted by non-U.S. aircraft, Ham said. France, Spain, Italy, Denmark and the U.K. enforced the no-fly zone over the Benghazi and coalition vessels patrolled the coast, he said. Both Italy and France deployed aircraft carriers.
Obama, speaking in Santiago, Chile, said the U.S. would hand over the military leadership role “in a matter of days, not a matter of weeks.”
The option of having the North Atlantic Treaty Organization take charge may hinge in part on the extent of reservations expressed by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Both Britain and France supported giving leadership to NATO, which requires unanimous approval from its 28 member countries, including Turkey. The Italian Foreign Ministry said in a statement yesterday that NATO should “take on the command and control” of military operations; otherwise, it will take control of military operations using seven Italian airbases.
‘Crusade’
Complicating matters, Arab League allies, who called for the no-fly zone, may not want to operate under NATO’s leadership, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said at a news conference March 20.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin criticized the allied attacks as a “medieval call for a crusade,” using an inflammatory phrase in Muslim nations that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev dismissed as “unacceptable.” Their conflict came a year before the next presidential election, in which both men have said they may run.
U.S. Vice Admiral Bill Gortney said Spain, Belgium, Denmark and Qatar have joined the coalition. The U.S., the U.K., France, Italy and Canada have at least 25 ships off the coast of Libya, including the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle and the Italian carrier Giuseppe Garibaldi.
Two Spanish fighters and a refueling aircraft undertook their first mission as part of the coalition, the Spanish Defense Ministry said.
Unrest continued in Yemen yesterday, as some army leaders and diplomats abandoned the Saleh regime, three days after a crackdown that left dozens dead. Military officers including Mohammed Ali Muhssein, commander of the eastern region, and Hamid al-Qushaibi, head of an armored brigade, have “announced their support for the revolution,” said Mohammed al-Sabri, an opposition leader.
Dozens of army and internal security officials, including three generals, have joined protesters calling for an end to Saleh’s three-decade rule, al-Jazeera television reported.
To contact the reporters on this story: Brendan McGarry in Washington atbmcgarry2@bloomberg.net; Kitty Donaldson in London at kdonaldson1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net; Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net
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