UK: Strikes Neutralize Libyan Air Defenses
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron says coalition forces have neutralized Libyan air defenses, averting a massacre in the African nation.
Cameron says Muammar Qaddafi was in breach of a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate end to hostilities and that the Libyan leader had lied to the international community by flouting an immediate cease-fire.
"I can announce to the House (parliament) today that coalition forces have largely neutralized Libyan air defenses and that as a result the no-fly zone has effectively been put in place over Libya," Cameron told parliament, according to Reuters.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Cameron told U.K. lawmakers Monday that through airstrikes, coalition forces helped avert what could have been "a bloody massacre in Benghazi."
Echoing the head of Britain's armed forces, Cameron declined to specify if Qaddafi is himself a potential target of the airstrikes -- saying he would not go further than addressing that targets are chosen to help avert attacks on civilians and to implement the no-fly zone.
"Many people will ask questions I'm sure today about regime change and Qaddafi," the prime minister said. "I've been clear; I think Libya needs to get rid of Qaddafi. But in the end we are responsible for trying to enforce this Security Council resolution. The Libyans must choose their own future."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Forces Qaddafi "pulled back" from the rebel stronghold of Benghazi and two other towns after U.N.-authorized airstrikes, a U.S. national security official told Reuters on Monday.
The official, who declined to be identified, said advances by Qaddafi's forces against Benghazi, Ajdabiya and Misrata had "stalled" as a consequence of the military action by U.S. and European forces that began Saturday.
But he said Qaddafi's forces remained active and the United States does not believe the Libyan leader is fulfilling promises to implement a cease-fire.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Hours earlier, a top French official said the international military intervention in Libya is likely to last "a while," echoing Qaddafi's warning of a long war ahead as rebels -- energized by the strikes on their opponents -- said they were fighting to reclaim a city under siege from the Libyan leader's forces.
Destroyed tanks and personnel carriers littered the main desert road leading southwest from Benghazi, the rebel's capital in the east of the country -- the remains of a pro-Qaddafi force that had been besieging the city until it was pounded by international strikes the past two nights.
Rebel fighters in Benghazi had now pushed down that highway to the outskirts of the city of Ajdabiya, which pro-Qaddafi forces have surrounded and been pounding with artillery and strikes since last week. The rebels swept into the nearby oil port of Zwitina, just northeast of the city, which was also the scene of heavy fighting last week -- though now had been abandoned by regime forces. There, a power station hit by shelling on Thursday was still burning, its blackened fuel tank crumpled, with flames and black smoke pouring out.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Associated Press contributed to this report.