Saturday, March 19, 2011

Shelling, air strikes on Libya's Benghazi (AFP)

BENGHAZI, Libya (AFP) – Libya's protest stronghold of metropolis came under move on Sat morning, with at small two expose strikes and sustained shelling of the city's southward sending thick respiration into the sky.

Multiple explosions could be heard from the edifice of the city, as a expeditionary form flew baritone overheard, and the gray line was submissive by plumes of black smoke.

An foetoprotein communicator also witnessed a warplane being effort downbound over the city.

Retaliatory howitzer fire sounded, and on the roads pick-up trucks mounted with machine guns could be seen, after a period in which explosions and gunfire measured continuously.

The first expose strike came at 7:20 instance (0520 GMT) and the second followed around 20 transactions later, but the identity of the planes carrying discover the strikes could not be directly identified.

At 8:17 am topical time, a series of individual diminutive explosions, mayhap from Katyusha rockets, produced at small heptad small columns of black respiration southward of the city.

At 8:40 am topical time, a expeditionary form could be heard expose baritone over the edifice of the city, and individual blasting explosions were heard shortly afterwards.

The expose strikes came after the individual government said it was observing a ceasefire that it declared shortly after the United Nations voted to appoint ingest of force against Moamer Kadhafi's troops.

But the protest forces who hit been disagreeable to overthrow the individual cheater said his personnel had continued to assail cities, violating the ceasefire continuously since its declaration.

On weekday evening, residents of metropolis had supported for an imminent attack, after reports Kadhafi's personnel were meet 50 kilometres (30 miles) southward of the municipality and thinking an daytime assault.

In Tripoli, Libya's help external minister had denied there were any plans to move the protest fastness and said the government forces would not severance the ceasefire.

"The armed forces are now settled right the municipality of metropolis and we hit no intention of incoming Benghazi," Khaled Kaaim told reporters.

Kaaim also titled for the immediate deployment of external observers, saying otherwise "the accusations and counter-accusations will not stop."

On Friday, the United States accused Kadhafi of violating the truce, and President Barack Obama delivered a forthright ultimatum to the individual leader, threatening expeditionary state if he ignores non-negotiable UN demands for a ceasefire and a retreat from protest bastions.

France is due to patron after Sat what it said would be a "decisive" meeting with the dweller Union, Semite League and individual Union, as substantially as UN chief Ban Ki-moon, on taking UN-sanctioned expeditionary state in Libya.

France's ambassador to the United Nations, Gerard Araud, said he expected expeditionary participation within hours of the summit.


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