American and European forces began a broad campaign of strikes against the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafion Saturday, unleashing warplanes and missiles in a military intervention on a scale not seen in the Arab world since the Iraq war. The United States Navy destroyer Barry fired Tomahawk missiles from the Mediterranean Sea on Saturday. The mission to impose a United Nations-sanctioned no-fly zone and keep Colonel Qaddafi from using air power against beleaguered rebel forces was portrayed by Pentagon and NATO officials as under French and British leadership. But the Pentagon said that American forces were mounting an initial campaign to knock out Libya’s air-defense systems, firing volley after volley of Tomahawk missiles from nearby ships against missile, radar and communications centers around Tripoli, the capital, and the western cities of Misurata and Surt.
The main barrage of missile strikes began around 2 p.m. Eastern time, when American Navy ships fired cruise missiles that struck Libya roughly an hour later, Vice Adm. William Gortney told reporters in Washington. He said the Pentagon did not yet have assessments of the damage the missiles had caused and would not know until dawn broke in Libya. The missile strikes were the start of what Admiral Gortney called a “multiphase operation” to create a no-flight zone that would allow coalition aircraft to fly all over Libya without the risk of being shot down. He would not say whether American aircraft would be involved in the no-flight zone, but he said that no American warplanes aircraft were directly over Libya on Saturday afternoon.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/world/africa/20libya.html?hp
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