MILITARY CAMPAIGN:THE MULTINATIONAL coalition carried out a second wave of air strikes across Libya yesterday, hitting Muammar Gadafy's compound in Tripoli and targeting government troops in the east of the country.
But as the military build-up continued along the Mediterranean, conflicting signals emerged among the allies on the aims and leadership of the mission.
After an initial bombardment of air defence installations to impose a United Nations-mandated no-fly zone over the weekend, air and missile attacks were scaled back yesterday after French defence officials reported coalition planes were not coming under fire. A United States military spokesman said between 10 and 12 missiles were fired in Libya between Sunday night and Monday morning, significantly fewer than the 110 fired on Saturday.
“We spent the first 24 hours establishing conditions for a no-fly zone and are now transitioning over to a patrol posture,” said Vince Crawley of the US Africa Command.
The second wave of bombing targeted government troops around Ajdabiya, a strategically important town in the east. The effects of a strike by British forces on part of Col Gadafy’s compound in Tripoli were unclear last night.
As the military operation continued, divisions emerged between members of the coalition on its leadership and direction. The White House said the US intended to hand over the lead role in Libyan operations to others within days. British prime minister David Cameron said the intention was to transfer the coalition command to Nato, but France said Arab countries did not want the Atlantic alliance in charge.
Nato members met in Brussels yesterday but had failed to resolve an impasse compounded by Turkish objections to the intervention force.
The attack on Col Gadafy’s compound also provoked debate over the allies’ aims. Henri Guaino, one of French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s closest aides, said strikes were not aimed at ousting Col Gadafy but said they were likely to last “a little while”.
British defence secretary Liam Fox signalled on Sunday that Col Gadafy was potentially a target but this was ruled out by British and US military leaders yesterday.
A top US commander, Gen Carter Ham, said US forces would not offer military support for a ground offensive by Libyan opposition forces and that it was possible Col Gadafy would survive a coalition air campaign with his power intact. “We have no mission to support opposition forces if they should engage in offensive operations operations,” he said.
Having questioned the need for a heavy bombardment at the weekend, Arab League chief Amr Moussa drew back from his criticism yesterday, saying he respected the UN resolution allowing for military action in Libya.
“We respect the UN resolution and there is no conflict with it, especially as it indicated there would be no invasion but that it would protect civilians from what they are subject to in Benghazi,” Moussa said.
Russia and China abstained in last week’s security council vote on but issued strong criticism of the operation, Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin comparing the air campaign to “medieval crusades”.
That earned him a rebuke from his successor as president, Dmitry Medvedev, who said Moscow would not participate in any military coalition in Libya but was open to a peacekeeping role.
Germany, which is not involved militarily in the Libyan campaign but has called for the UN resolution to be implemented, also expressed misgivings.
Foreign minister Guido Westerwelle described Mr Moussa’s criticism of the coalition’s methods as vindication of Berlin’s initial concerns over intervention.