Page 5 - Libya Operation News Today

We begin with gaining momentum after a week of international air strikes, libyan rebels continue to push back forces loyal to gadhafi. this morning an opposition spokesman claimed that rebels captured his hometown located half way between the rebel-held east and the government-controlled west. it would be a significant victory for the movement which took two oil complexes over the weekend. those developments come as nato agreed to take over command and control of the entire libya operation inclu...

Commanders to work their way through it in a manner that protects our soldiers. its an additional burden were putting on the commanders. the unity of command in the operation, they wouldnt take the additional burden on. >> general, thank you for coming in. >> thank you. >> appreciate it. were standing by to hear from the secretary of state hillary clinton. shes getting ready to make a statement over at the state department. well go there live. youre looking at live pictures. the treaty room at t...

Intention is that it wants to end the bloodshed. the intention is to end the bloodshed, but you have opposition forces saying they want to continue the war. the question is how do you end the bloodshed? when one side wants to continue to fight? it brings up the questions the critics are asking. where is it going? when is it going to end? how will it end? >> dan lothian at the white house. the white house, the president, the secretary of state, the secretary of defense, they said repeatedly it wo...

Room." breaking news as coalition aircraft pound targets in libya. the u.s. and key allies reach a deal for nato to take over command of the operation. there are already questions whether the agreement will hold. were awaiting a statement from the nato secretary general as well as the secretary of state, hillary clinton. well bring you both statements live. congressional critics have been slamming the white house over the handling of the crisis. if nato takes control, will that take some of the ...

Point how that will eventually happen. >> lots of questions that have to be answered. the pentagon will have to answer a lot of these questions. chris lawrence is our man at the pentagon. pentagon planners, pentagon commanders have been saying now for days that they have effectively destroyed libyas air defense system. basically the air force is not flying anymore. so maintaining the no-fly zone over libya doesnt look to be that difficult of an operation right now. the real difficulty will be ma...

Recent -- since this operation began almost a week ago. they said the u.s. would be in charge only for a matter of days. then someone else would take charge. it was unclear who would take charge. now we know it will be nato together with some nonnato members who will participate only within in the past hour or so. the united arab emirates said it will send 12 jet fighters to participate in the no-fly zone operation. six frempbl made barrage jet fighters. the united arab emirates will join. and t...

States? >> we have done all the necessary preparation. we can take over in a couple days. >> by this weekend nato will be in charge. will the overall commander be someone from france, britain, from denmark where youre from? who will be in charge? >> we will use the already established nato chain of command. >> so who will be the commander of the operation? >> thats for the military authorities to decide. the nato council does not make that decision. >> do you know if theyve already made the deci...

It is a nato supreme commander who will be responsible. his by the way, an american but nato commander. i want to be precise. are you saying this operation will be commanded by the u.s. commander of nato? >> yeah. it will be a nato command. but i also have to say that we will include contributing partners from the region in this operation. its of utmost importance to stress that this is not primarily a nato operation. it is a broad international effort in which we will include partners for the r...

Room." the nato secretary general anders rasmussen announcing nato reached an agreement to take over operation of the no-fly zone over libya. no agreement on whether to go ahead and launch attacks against libyan ground forces tanks, artillery threatening opposition forces, the rebels. lets discuss whats going on in the breaking news that is significant. joining us right now are pentagon correspondent chris lawrence, our white house correspondent, dan lothian and ressa seya in benghazi. let me go...

>> when do you think youll make the final decision on expanding the nato operation to include this other mission? >> without production, the outcome of our deliberations, i think we may be able to take the decision within the coming days. >> all right. thank you very much for joining us. anders rasmussen is the former prime minister of denmark. is that right? >> yes, indeed. youre welcome. thank you. >> weve met here in washington. hes a very good man. he was generous to share the news with all ...