TRIPOLI (AFP) - A missile totally destroyed an administrative building of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi's residence in Tripoli, an AFP journalist saw Sunday.
The building, about 50 metres (165 feet) from the tent where Kadhafi generally meets guests, was flattened. It was hit by a missile, Libyan spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told journalists, who were taken to the site by bus.
"This was a barbaric bombing which could have hit hundreds of civilians gathered at the residence of Moamer Kadhafi about 400 metres away from the building which was hit," Ibrahim said.
He denounced the "contradictions in Western discourses," saying: "Western countries say they want to protect civilians while they bomb the residence knowing there are civilians inside."
Scores of Kadhafi supporters rushed towards the complex at Bab el-Aziziya in the south of the Libyan capital after a rumour spread that a plane had been shot down and crashed.
"Where is the plane?" several of them, mainly youths, cried.
Smoke billowed from the residence and barracks as anti-aircraft guns fired shots.
Tripoli was rocked by powerful explosions late Sunday, of which one was heard coming from the area around Kadhafi's residence.
Kadhafi's army announced a new ceasefire on Sunday, saying it was heeding an African Union call for an immediate cessation of hostilities, but the United States accused Tripoli of breaching the truce almost immediately.
Moamer Kadhafi: a leader under siege
"I sincerely hope and urge the Libyan authorities to keep their word," United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in a swift reaction during a visit to Libya's eastern neighbour Egypt.
"They have been continuing to attack the civilian population. This (offer) has to be verified and tested," he told a news conference in Cairo.
Kadhafi's regime had declared a ceasefire on Friday after UN Security Council resolution 1973 authorised any necessary measures, including a no-fly zone, to stop his forces harming civilians in the fight against the rebels.
But his troops continued attacking the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, sparking action by US, British and French forces from Saturday in line with the resolution.
----
Ousting Gaddafi not immediate goal: US
Mathieu Rabechault, AAP
March 21, 2011The immediate goal of the coalition's intervention in Libya is to protect civilians with a no-fly zone, not to try to oust strongman Muammar Gaddafi, the top US military officer says.
 The immediate goal of the coalition's intervention in Libya is to protect civilians, the US says. |
US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as well as other Western leaders, had been saying Gaddafi must go, but since the UN authorised military action on Thursday those calls have been dying down.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen said initial air and sea strikes by US, Britain and France had stopped Gaddafi's forces in their tracks and that the aim now was to cut off their logistical support.
"We're in a situation now that what we do will depend to some degree on what he does," Mullen told Fox News Sunday.
Obama has vowed that US troops will not be deployed on the ground and Mullen stressed that military action was limited -- for the moment at least -- to protecting civilians, particularly in the rebel bastion of Benghazi.
"The focus of the United Nations Security Council was really Benghazi specifically and to protect the civilians," Mullen told Fox News Sunday.
"Clearly we have taken down the important nodes that remove his capability," the top-ranked US military officer said.
"This is not about going after Gaddafi himself or attacking him at this particular point in time.
"It is about achieving these narrow and relatively limited objectives so that he stops killing his people and so that humanitarian support can be provided."
US, British and French forces have launched the West's biggest intervention in the Arab world since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, firing more than 120 Tomahawk Cruise missiles and conducting bombing raids on key Libyan targets.
Mullen, speaking to several US news networks, said the no-fly zone had been successfully implemented.
"We've got combat air patrol or aircraft over Benghazi and we'll have them there on a 24/7 basis," he told CNN's State of the Union program. "He (Gaddafi) hasn't flown any aircraft for the last two days."
"We also struck some of his forces on the ground in the vicinity of Benghazi. He was attacking Benghazi yesterday. So (we) put a halt to that, at least temporarily," Mullen added.
"And now we'll look to cut off his logistics lines. He has his forces pretty well stretched from Tripoli all the way out to Benghazi and we'll endeavour to sever his logistic support here in the next day or so."
His remarks came after the United States unleashed a barrage of strikes against the Libyan regime's air defences.
In a dramatic show of force, American warships and a British submarine fired Tomahawk Cruise missiles into Libya against Gaddafi's anti-aircraft missiles and radar on Saturday, the US military said.
Admiral William Gortney told reporters at the Pentagon that the cruise missiles "struck more than 20 integrated air defence systems and other air defence facilities ashore."
Earlier on Sunday, three US B-2 stealth bombers dropped 40 bombs on a major Libyan airfield in an attempt to destroy much of the Libyan Air Force, US military officials said.
In all, 19 US planes, including the stealth bombers, took part in dawn raids on Sunday on targets in Libya, US Africa Command, based in Germany, told AFP.
