U.S., allies launch air attacks on Libya

The United States and its Western allies launched air attacks on Libyan targets on Saturday, in what U.S. President Barack Obama described as the work of a "broad coalition" to protect "a threatened people" against ruler Moammar Gadhafi's forces.

"We are answering the calls of a threatened people and we are acting in the interests of the United States and the world," Obama said in a statement from Brazil, during a visit to Latin America.

"Make no mistake, today we are part of a broad coalition," Obama said.

The Pentagon said more than 100 Tomahawk cruise missiles from U.S. and British ships and submarines had been fired at 20 targets. The Western coalition is reportedly targeting Libyan air defences, especially around Tripoli and the west Libyan city of Misrata.

"This is the first phase of what will likely be a multi-phase operation," U.S. Vice Admiral William Gortney, director of the Pentagon's Joint Staff, said at a briefing in Washington after Obama spoke.

"These strikes were carefully coordinated with our coalition partners," Gortney said, adding that most of the targets — in what's being called Operation Odyssey Dawn — were on the Mediterranean coast and that information was still coming in because it was night.

Responding on Libyan state television to the attacks, Gadhafi warned that the coalition action has turned the Mediterranean region and North Africa into a "ground of war."

Gadhafi said he would open his country's military stores to "arm all the masses with all types of weapons" in defence of the country against a "colonial crusader."

An Al Jazeera reporter in the rebel capital Benghazi, meanwhile, said that people there were firing guns in the air to celebrate the international attacks.

Al Jazeera also reported that one of the targets hit was a military college near Misrata, where it said Gadhafi's forces were believed to be based.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said earlier Saturday that Canadian aircraft would be participating in extensive aerial operations "very soon" to protect civilians, but a spokesman for the Prime Minister's Office said the jets had just arrived in the region and needed up to two days to prepare for any missions.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister David Cameron confirmed that British forces are also in action over Libya.

"What we are doing is necessary, it is legal, and it is right," Cameron told reporters in London.

Earlier in the day the coalition action began with a French airstrike that happened at 6:45 p.m. local time in Libya (4:45 p.m GMT), French Defence Ministry spokesman Thierry Burkhard said.

Reuters reported the attack involved 20 French aircraft, quoting an unnamed defence official who said "a number of tanks and armoured vehicles" had been destroyed. Al Jazeera said the attack happened southwest of Benghazi.

The airstrikes came amid reports that forces supporting Gadhafi had entered Benghazi, launching attacks in defiance of a UN no-fly resolution.

Libyan government tanks had been seen in Benghazi and the south and coastal areas came under attack despite a declared ceasefire by Gadhafi, BBC and Al Jazeera reported.

Rebels and government soldiers were also fighting on a university campus on the south side of the city, Bengahzi resident Abdel-Hafez told the Associated Press.

"There is a bombardment by artillery and rockets on all districts of Benghazi," Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the head of the opposition National Libyan Council, told Al Jazeera.

By late in the day, warplanes could be heard overhead, the shelling had stopped and city residents began to flee, The Associated Press reported.

Thousands of Libyans were fleeing shelling on the western side of Benghazi, the CBC's Nahlah Ayed reported from Cairo.

Long lines of traffic were reported heading east on the road from Benghazi to the city of Tobruk, and long waits were also happening at gas stations.

As well, video footage from the city showed a jet being shot down over the city. An Associated Press reporter saw the plane go down in flames and heard the sound of artillery and crackling gunfire.

Libya's government denied there had been any action in Benghazi and blamed rebel elements for trying to spark international military action.

"There are no attacks whatsoever on Benghazi," government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim told Reuters.