EQUIPO NIZKOR |
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26Apr11
Latest military activity in Libya
Following are the latest available details of military activity in Libya.
* Tripoli was quiet on Tuesday after a NATO strike on Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's compound in the capital early on Monday which Libyan officials said was an attempt to kill him.
* British Defense Secretary Liam Fox and Britain's Chief of the Defense Staff General David Richards were scheduled to meet U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in Washington to talk about stepping up military pressure on Gaddafi as his army presses its siege of the rebel-held city of Misrata.
* A British military spokesman, Major General John Lorimer, said British planes were in action at the weekend around Misrata, Yafran, Ajdabiyah and Brega, destroying tanks, rockets, missile launchers and armored personnel carriers.
* The Libyan army has reinforced positions around the eastern oil town of Brega and dug in its long-range missile batteries to conceal them from attacks by NATO warplanes, a rebel army officer said.
* Refugees fleeing Libya's Western Mountains told of heavy bombardment by Gaddafi's forces as they tried to dislodge rebels in remote Berber towns.
* Rebels in Misrata were in a fierce fight with government forces for control of the port and three local people had been killed, a rebel spokesman told Reuters on Tuesday.
* Since NATO took over command of Western military activity in Libya, the alliance's aircraft have conducted 3,858 sorties, including 1,606 intended as strike sorties. NATO defines strike stories as missions intended to identify and engage targets, but which do not always involve the use of munitions.
* NATO conducted 133 sorties on Monday, with 56 intended as strike missions. It said targets included:
-- One tank, three surface-to-air missile launchers, three infantry fighting vehicles, one rocket launcher and one vehicle depot in the vicinity of Tripoli;
-- One surface-to-air missile training facility near Misrata;
-- Three ammunition depots near Sirte;
-- Two tanks and two infantry fighting vehicles in the vicinity of Al-Khums.
* NATO has some 200 aircraft at its disposal.
* A total of 19 ships under NATO command are actively patrolling the central Mediterranean Sea. Thirty vessels were hailed on Monday to determine destination and cargo. Three boardings were conducted.
* A total of 640 vessels have been hailed, 17 boardings and five diversions have been conducted since the beginning of arms embargo operations.
[Source: Reuters, Brussels, 26Apr11]
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