Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi appeared on state television last night saying he was not afraid of air strikes and that he was with his people.
He denounced the “unjust” international action against Libya. Fighting raged between forces loyal to him and insurgents in several towns yesterday despite a UN-mandated no-fly zone aimed at stopping the violence.
As a senior US officer said Col Gaddafi forces were still attacking civilians, doubts persisted over the best way to continue the campaign to stop Col Gaddafi.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said future actions of the coalition, which began air strikes on Saturday on Col Gaddafi’s military installations, depend in part of the embattled Libyan leader. “The military operations could stop at any moment. All it would take is for the Tripoli regime to adhere precisely and completely with UN Security Council resolutions, and to accept a genuine ceasefire,” he said.
He called on Col Gaddafi to withdraw troops engaged in military advances and send them “back to their barracks”.
Libyan anti-aircraft fire opened up over the capital after nightfall yesterday, amid the sound of far-off explosions.
Residents of Yafran, 130 kilometres southwest of Tripoli, said at least nine people had been killed in clashes between the two sides. Rebels said they were under intense attack in their enclave of Misrata, east of Tripoli, which has been besieged by Col Gaddafi’s forces for weeks, with four children killed yesterday.
But rebels said they had managed to repulse loyalists and retake the outskirts of the western town of Zintan.
A US F-15 jet crashed in rebel-held eastern Libya late on Monday following a malfunction as it took part in a raid against government anti-aircraft defences, but the two crew members ejected and were safe.
Admiral Samuel Locklear, commander aboard the USS Mount Whitney in the Mediterranean, said “one crew member was recovered by coalition forces. The other crew member was recovered by Libyan people. He was treated with dignity and respect, (and) is now in the care of the United States.”
After a third night of strikes on Col Gaddafi’s strongholds and defence structure, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said “significant military fighting that has been going on should recede in the next few days.”
Destroying radar and missiles under Col Gaddafi’s control would pave the way for a no-fly zone that could be patrolled by combat aircraft, with the United States assuming a supporting role, Mr Gates said in Moscow.
In Misrata, a rebel spokesman reached by telephone said insurgents remained in control despite an onslaught by Col Gaddafi loyalists who had opened fire with tanks and set snipers on roofs to gun down people in the streets.
A standoff persisted in eastern Libya, where Col Gaddafi forces in and around Ajdabiya, south of the insurgents’ capital of Benghazi, easily repulsed attempts by the disorganised and ill-armed rebels to advance.
Coalition forces, led by the US, France and Britain and including some other European states and Arab country Qatar, are acting under UN Security Council resolution 1973 authorising “all necessary means” to protect civilians.
There is coordination but no unified command, and moves to hand over control of the operation to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation are dividing the alliance.
US President Barack Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron agreed that Nato should play a key role in the command structure of the Libya mission, the White House said.
Nato ambassadors resumed talks yesterday after “very difficult” discussions on Monday which failed to overcome their divisions.
But a diplomat said they had agreed to use the organisation’s naval power to enforce an arms embargo on Libya ordered under UN Resolution 1973.
Belgian and Spanish warplanes began patrolling Libyan skies on Monday, British Typhoon fighters and Canadian jets launched their first missions from Italian bases, and a Greek source said France’s aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle should join in from waters off Crete, probably by today.
Italian pilots said they had helped suppress air defences, despite Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, whose country has close ties with former colony Libya, saying Italian planes “are not firing and will not fire”.