Pentagon Tallies Coalition Actions in Libya

WASHINGTON, March 23, 2011 — By the fifth day of coali­tion task force oper­a­tions sup­port­ing a no-fly zone in Libya and pro­tect­ing Libyan civil­ians, the 13-nation alliance had flown more than 300 sor­ties in the North African coun­try, Pen­ta­gon offi­cials said yes­ter­day.
By 3 p.m. EDT yes­ter­day, the Unit­ed States had flown 212 sor­ties, oth­er coali­tion sor­ties totaled 124, and Tom­a­hawk mis­sile launch­es num­bered 162, offi­cials said.

Offi­cials said the 336 sor­ties includ­ed 108 strike sor­ties, mean­ing they encoun­tered oppo­si­tion from Moam­mar Gadhafi’s forces. 

The Unit­ed Nations Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil passed Res­o­lu­tion 1973 on March 17, demand­ing an end to vio­lence against Libyan cit­i­zens and autho­riz­ing enforce­ment of a no-fly zone over Libya. 

Task Force Odyssey Dawn, includ­ing forces from the Unit­ed States, the Unit­ed King­dom, France, Italy, Cana­da and Arab states, imme­di­ate­ly shift­ed from human­i­tar­i­an and refugee evac­u­a­tion mis­sions under way since March 4 to mil­i­tary air oper­a­tions enforc­ing the resolution. 

Navy Adm. Samuel J. Lock­lear III, task force com­man­der, said yes­ter­day the strikes are intend­ed to open the door for inter­na­tion­al and non­govern­men­tal orga­ni­za­tion human­i­tar­i­an assis­tance efforts. 

Lock­lear said the coalition’s top pri­or­i­ty is pro­tec­tion of civil­ians and civil­ian infrastructure. 

With the no-fly zone estab­lished and “robust,” the admi­ral said, “we are look­ing at the bat­tle space as it changes, look­ing at the dis­po­si­tion of … Gadhafi’s forces that are not com­ply­ing with the U.N. Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil res­o­lu­tion, and we are able to pro­duce more of an effect.” 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs) 

Face­book and/or on Twit­ter

Team GlobDef

Seit 2001 ist GlobalDefence.net im Internet unterwegs, um mit eigenen Analysen, interessanten Kooperationen und umfassenden Informationen für einen spannenden Überblick der Weltlage zu sorgen. GlobalDefence.net war dabei die erste deutschsprachige Internetseite, die mit dem Schwerpunkt Sicherheitspolitik außerhalb von Hochschulen oder Instituten aufgetreten ist.

Alle Beiträge ansehen von Team GlobDef →