Libyan air force destroyed: British commander

Nato nations fail to agree on giving the Western alliance command of military operations in Libya.

NEAR AJDABIYA: Libyan ground troops are being targeted by air strikes, coalition officials said on Wednesday, as a top British officer declared Muammar Qaddafi's air force effectively destroyed.

This came as Nato nations failed to agree on giving the Western alliance command of military operations in Libya and eight huge explosions were heard in the capital Tripoli.

As bitter fighting raged in key rebel strongholds, six Nato warships backed up by aircraft began patrolling international waters off Libya's coast to enforce a UN arms embargo against Qaddafi’s regime, the alliance said.

Air Vice Marshal Greg Bagwell of Britain said that Libya’s air force has been almost totally destroyed by the air strikes and “no longer exists as a fighting force.”

Bagwell told British media at an airbase in southern Italy, from which RAF warplanes are operating, that Libyan ground forces were also being attacked when they threaten civilians.

The US military also said Qaddafi’s ground troops who are threatening rebel-held cities are now being targeted by coalition air strikes.

“We are putting pressure on Qaddafi’s  ground forces that are threatening cities,” Rear Admiral Gerard Hueber, US chief of staff for the Libya mission, told journalists. Asked if that meant air strikes, he replied: “Yes.”

Nato nations failed to agree on giving the alliance command of military operations in Libya, a Nato diplomat told AFP. “There was no agreement and the discussions continue,” the diplomat said after a new round of talks among ambassadors of the 28-nation alliance. The debate will resume Thursday, the diplomat said.

Late on Wednesday night eight explosions were heard in the east of the Libyan capital and smoke was seen rising into the night sky, local residents told Reuters.

“We heard four explosions, then after five minutes we heard four more,” said a resident of the eastern Tajoura neighbourhood. “We saw smoke and fire afterwards.”

Russia fears ground invasion

Russia believes a ground invasion of Libya is almost a certainty and feels justified in abstaining from a UN Security Council vote sanctioning military action, a top official said.

“There is no coordinated plan in place and the operation can drag on,” Kremlin foreign policy adviser Sergei Prikhodko told the ITAR-TASS news agency.

“We understand that sooner or later, if the air operation gets bogged down, a ground operation will be inevitable, whatever they tell us,” Pikhodko said.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 24^th, 2011.