French air strikes pound armour, munitions dump

PARIS: French warplanes on Sunday carried out strikes on Libyan armoured vehicles and a "major munitions depot" in the Misrata and Zintan regions in the west of the country, French military headquarters said. Three patrols on a "reconnaissance mission" had carried out "strikes on armoured vehicles and a major munitions depot in the regions of Misrata and Zintan" east of Tripoli, it said on its website. Qatar completed its promised aerial contribution to the coalition forces with the arrival of three Mirage 2000-5 warplanes at the Souda base in Crete, bringing to six the number of Qatari planes stationed there, alongside three French Mirage 2000-5 fighters, it added. It said the planes from Qatar, one of two Arab countries supplying aircraft to the coalition, and from France had carried out a mission to enforce the no-fly zone over Libya under the terms of UN Security Council Resolution 1973. French fighter jets destroyed at least five warplanes and two helicopters from forces backing Libyan leader Moamer Qadhafi in the same area on Saturday, the military announced. French jets "carried out several strikes in the Zintan and Misrata regions," it said on the French armed forces website.