Italian fighter jets leave Sicily base

none@none.com (Syed Murtaza Gheblehzadeh) — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 22:22:04 +0500

ROME: Three Italian Tornado fighter jets on Sunday took off from an air base in western Sicily, AFP journalists said but details of their destination were not immediately known. A spokesman for the Trapani base told AFP-TV he could "not give details" of the fighters' mission. Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa said earlier Sunday Italy had assigned eight combat aircraft for the international campaign against Moamer Qadhafi's forces in Libya and that they could be used "at any time". Western and Arab warplanes were converging on Italian air bases Sunday to join the international campaign to cripple the ability of Qadhafi's forces to attack Libyan civilians. France, which Saturday spearheaded the UN-mandated Operation "Odyssey Dawn" with air strikes on Libya, on Sunday also sent its aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle to join the campaign.

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Italian fighter jets leave Sicily base