Dubai: The United States does not have Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on its 'target list' as Western nations intensify their military action on Libya, a top US military official said on Sunday.
As smoke was seen rising above Tripoli from the direction of Libya's presidential palace, Vice Admiral Bill Gortney, director of the US military's Joint Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon that Gaddafi not being targeted by coalition air strikes.
Gortney said the coalition acting against Gaddafi, which originally grouped the United States, Britain, France, Italy and Canada, had broadened to include Belgium and Qatar.
Allies halt Gaddafi advance
Explosions and heavy anti-aircraft fire reverberated in Libya on Sunday as allied warplanes continued to patrol the Libyan skies, pummelling the country's air defences for the second day, reports said.
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi vowed to defeat the Western powers' ‘terrorism' as the allies hit a diplomatic hurdle with the Arab League slamming the ‘bombardment of civilians'.
The air strikes on Libyan troops marching to Benghazi allowed the revolutionaries to recapture their stronghold. Burned bodies of 14 soldiers were found scattered alongside shattered remains of tanks and armoured personnel carriers, a Reuters report said. Early yesterday, three US B2 stealth bombers dropped 40 bombs on a major airfield. In all, 19 US planes took part in dawn raids, the US Africa Command, based in Germany, told AFP.
Endgame uncertain
The US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, said the no-fly zone was effectively in place. But he told CBS the endgame of military action was ‘very uncertain' and acknowledged it could end in a stalemate with Gaddafi.
Undeterred by the setbacks, Gaddafi sent his troops and tanks into Misrata. Several people were killed by gunfire, residents said.
Sa'adon Al Misrati, spokesman for the February 17 Revolutionary Coalition, told Gulf News that yesterday was another tough day for the people of the city. "Gaddafi showed no mercy for civilians who refused to leave the city. We urged western countries to hit Gaddafi's tanks and artillery. Gaddafi is planning to burn homes. Snipers of Gaddafi have been stationed on buildings to kill any moving creature. The world has to stop this man, who is getting crazy," Al Misrati said. As the allied forces tried to assess the effectivity of the Operation Odyssey Dawn blitz on Saturday, Gaddafi railed against the West, pledging to fight to the death.
"We will not leave our land and we will liberate it," he said on state television. "We will remain alive and you will all die."
Arab League chief Amr Mousa condemned the raids and said this was not what the League had in mind when they asked for the imposition of a no-fly zone over Libya. "What is happening in Libya differs from the aim of imposing a no-fly zone, and what we want is the protection of civilians and not the bombardment of more civilians," he told Egypt's state news agency, Mena. Mousa also said he was calling for an emergency Arab League meeting.
But Qatar became the first Arab country to commit military forces when it announced plans to join the US, UK, Canada, France and Italy against Libya. Prime Minister Shaikh Hamad Bin Jasem Al Thani said the aim was to ‘stop the bloodbath.'
The African Union's panel on Libya called for an "immediate stop" to all attacks.
- With input from agencies
