Sunday, March 20, 2011
Gaza militants fired dozens of shells into Israel, reportedly wounding at least two people, while Palestinians said five had been hurt in Israeli air strikes.
The armed wing of the radical Hamas movement governing the Palestinian territory said it had mounted the attack, three days after an Israeli air strike killed two of its members in the Gaza Strip.
Israel said 49 mortar bombs fell on or around Israeli communities near the border with the Gaza Strip in the biggest violation yet of an informal truce militants declared in January.
Army radio said only minor damage was caused but an Israeli military spokesman said two civilians were lightly wounded when three projectiles fell on Pithat Shalom in the Negev desert.
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Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is promising “a long war” against the international military forces that have targeted his troops with airstrikes and dozens of cruise missiles.
In a phone call to Libyan state television, Gaddafi says he will not let up on the rebellion in the country’s east.
He said he has opened up the weapons depots to Libyans, and said everyone is armed with “automatic weapons, mortars, bombs.”
“We promise you a long war,” he said in the address.
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American and European forces began a broad campaign of strikes against the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi on Saturday, unleashing warplanes and missiles in a military intervention on a scale not seen in the Arab world since the Iraq war.
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.
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Saturday, March 19, 2011
President Nicolas Sarkozy announced Saturday that French jets have entered Libyan airspace after a crunch meeting of world leaders in Paris. French forces will be countering the attacks of Gaddafi’s forces on Benghazi. Follow events live on France24.
French jets have entered Libya’s airspace to prevent Muammar Gaddafi’s forces from attacking Benghazi, President Sarkozy has announced.
Sarkozy’s statement to the press came after world leaders, including British PM David Cameron, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and various Arab leaders, met in Paris Saturday to hold crunch talks on the crisis in Libya.
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French President Nicolas Sarkozy says world powers meeting in Paris have agreed on the use of military action to protect civilians in Libya.
Sarkozy said Saturday the international community has a duty to respond to the call of the civilians who are facing a military assault from forces loyal to leader Moammar Gadhafi.
He commented as pro-government forces in the north African nation advanced against rebels on two fronts. Insurgents in their eastern stronghold of Benghazi say pro-government forces are advancing in apparent disregard of the cease-fire Gadhafi declared on Friday. The rebels also say military units loyal to Gadhafi shot down one of their planes over the city.
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