Co Coalition News Today

Sitting on the fence or being able not to go out in the street and are hiding will see that who is going to win the battle is who theyre going to go with. theyve got to be very careful here. if they side with, you know, outside of gadhafis world, they could get in trouble if he is able to follow through. but if the success and the backing of the coalition shows that there is a world support for the rebels, i think that will make a big difference in which way people vote. >> alec frazier, preside...

All of them in position to launch these cruise missiles. but defense chief robert gates says it will not be long until the u.s. military goes from a lead role to a support role. >> we expect it in a matter of days to be able to turn over the primary responsibility to others. we will continue to support the coalition. well be a member of the coalition. we will have a military role in the coalition, but we will not have the preeminent role. >> chris lawrence is live at the pentagon. youre getting ...

The president personally called king abdullah of jordan this morning. a secure conference call between president obama and secretary clinton is planned as they work out the next steps of this operation. the u.s. played the lead role in "operation odyssey dawn" over the weekend but that wont last much longer. responsibility will be handed to french or british very shortly. >> we expect in a matter of days to be able to turn over the primary responsibility to others. we will continue to support ...

Defenses were done, then you could send in. save casualties on the civilian side and on the pilots side. >> just to give people a sense of how careful allied forces are trying to be in this. they halted a mission because they received information that civilians were in the area. this crossed within the last hour, they said, that decision to do that underlines their capability of protecting civilians. is this keeping people on the side of the coalition on whats going on right now? >> one thing is...

Evacuated. officials do not know what is causing the smoke this time. his air defenses are crippled and a four-story building in his compound is in ruins but where is moammar gadhafi? thats one of the big questions in libya this morning after the co coalition launched more than 100 cruise missiles. nic robertson is live for us in tripoli. any indication where gadhafi is right now? >> reporter: at this moment we dont. the compound that we were taken to last night where there was the damaged bui...

Gadhafi himself. in fact, it wasnt a personal attack on him, but we feel its a legitimate target because he does have these command and control abilities out of that place. lets take you back a little bit to tell you what led up to that strike last night. this all started with missiles flying from u.s. and british ships on saturday. they fired from the mediterranean sea for one reason. thats because the first target was colonel gadhafis long-range ballistic missiles. those have a range of 150 to...

These are important oil refinery towns going farther toward a gadhafi stronghold about 300 miles from the capital here. its not clear if they will be able to do that. what will make the difference if they can make those gains is if coalition forces strike all of gadhafis army so they are pushing it further back and back and back. at the moment were not clear over what the new front line between the two forces might be. certainly the international coalition right now will have a big deciding fact...

Major weapons caches of bomb-making materials. gan officials saying 27 militants have been killed. these are fierce gun battles. the second day of the offensive and the largest since the 2001 u.s. liv-led invasion. according to top military brass on the ground, it could take weeks to actually reclaim this area as the insurgents are resisting on every front. conner powell joins us on the phone. hes embedded with u.s. marines inside the region where the offensive is taking place. hes going to give...