First shots fired in Libya intervention

The French air force destroyed Libyan tanks and armoured vehicles on Saturday, the first shots fired in a UN-mandated military intervention to protect civilians from attacks by Muammar Gaddafi's forces. A French defence ministry official said "a number of tanks and armoured vehicles" were destroyed in the region of Benghazi, with initial action focusing on stopping Gaddafi's forces from advancing on the rebels' eastern stronghold.
Gaddafi's troops pushed into the outskirts of Benghazi on Saturday after a unilateral cease-fire declared by his government failed to materialise, prompting leaders meeting in Paris on Saturday to announce the start of military intervention. "Those taking part agreed to put in place all necessary means, especially military, to enforce the decisions of the United Nations Security Council," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said after meeting Western and Arab leaders.
Sarkozy said an operation supported by France, Britain, the United States and Canada, and backed by Arab nations, would continue unless the Libyan leader ceased fire. "Colonel Gaddafi has made this happen," British Prime Minister David Cameron told reporters after the meeting. "We cannot allow the slaughter of civilians to continue." Some analysts have questioned the strategy for the military intervention, fearing western forces might be sucked into a long civil war despite their current insistence they have no plans to send ground troops to Libya.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper suggested that outside powers hoped their intervention would be enough to turn the tide against Gaddafi and allow Libyans to force him out. "It is our belief that if Mr Gaddafi loses the capacity to enforce his will through vastly superior armed forces, he simply will not be able to sustain his grip on the country."
SUPPORTERS GATHER AT GADDAFI COMPOUND Gaddafi has said Western powers had no right to intervene. "This is injustice, this is clear aggression," government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim quoted Gaddafi as saying in a letter to France, Britain and the United Nations. "You will regret it if you take a step towards interfering in our internal affairs."
The Libyan government blamed the rebels, who it says are members of al Qaeda, for breaking a cease-fire around Benghazi. In Tripoli, several thousand people gathered at the Bab al-Aziziyah palace, Gaddafi's compound that was bombed by US warplanes in 1986, to show their support. "There are 5,000 tribesmen that are preparing to come here to fight with our leader. They better not try to attack our country," said farmer Mahmoud el-Mansouri.
"We will open up Libya's deserts and allow Africans to flood to Europe to blow themselves up as suicide bombers." France and Britain have taken a lead role in pushing for international intervention in Libya and the United States - after embarking on wars in Afghanistan and Iraq - has been at pains to stress it is supporting, not leading the operation.
Clinton said the United States would bring its "unique capabilities" to bear to help its European and Canadian allies in enforcing the UN resolution passed on Thursday. THOUSANDS FLEE BENGHAZI A large plume of black smoke rose from the edge of Benghazi mid-afternoon, live television pictures showed, but it was not clear what was causing the fire. Residents set up make-shift barricades with furniture, benches, road signs and even a barbecue in one case at intervals along main streets. Each barricade was manned by half a dozen rebels, but only about half of those were armed.
Hundreds of cars full of refugees fled Benghazi towards the Egyptian border after the city came under a bombardment overnight. One family of 13 women from a grandmother to small children, rested at a roadside hotel. Residents of the rebel-held Libyan city of Misrata said government shells and snipers killed nine people on Saturday and the hospital could not operate on the wounded because it had no anaesthetic.
Misrata, about 200 km (130) miles east of Tripoli, is the last big rebel stronghold in the west of the country and people living there say forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi are still trying to retake the city despite a cease-fire. Residents said there was some shelling in the city on Saturday morning - though not as heavy as the previous day - and one reported that seven people were killed.