War has started in Libya

After several international warnings towards the Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, today French, British and American military forces began the first air strikes in Libya, enforcing UN Security Council Resolution 1973.

More than 110 Tomahawk missiles fired from American and British ships and submarines hit about 20 Libyan air and missile defense targets, as U.S. Vice Adm. William Gortney said at a Pentagon briefing today.


Latest developments:

9:51 p.m. (GMT) - Sirte, hometown of Libyan leader Muammar Ghaddafi, was targeted by missile attacks and air raids of the international coalition, announced the official Libyan agency (JANA).

9:43 p.m. - AFP: Libyan television said the air defense shot down a French military plane in Tripoli region. French officials, quoted by the BBC, denied, however, the information submitted by the Libyan state television.

9:39 p.m. - AFP: The Committee of the African Union (AU), meeting on the situation in Libya, rejected "any foreign military intervention, in whatever form", said the Mauritanian President Mohamer Ould Abdel Aziz.

9:32 p.m. - CNN: Prime Minister David Cameron said late Saturday that British forces also are in action over Libya. "What we are doing is necessary, it is legal and it is right," he said. "I believe we should not stand aside while this dictator murders his own people."

9:23 p.m. - CNN - U.S. and British missiles were launched from ships and submarines and hit 20 targets, air defense systems and strategic communications centers located on the Libyan coast. The announcement was made by Admiral William Gortney, in a press conference at the Pentagon. Admiral Gortney also said that the operation aims at preventing Ghaddafi's regime to use force against its own people and refused to give details about future operations.
A Libyan army spokesman said that several "civilian targets" in the cities of Tripoli, Misra, Zuara and Benghazi have been targeted by enemy raids.

8:25 p.m. - AFP: President Barack Obama, said he had authorized a "limited military action" in Libya, adding that U.S. troops would be involved in ground operations in the country.

7:57 p.m. - United States launched the first missiles in Libya against forces of Libyan leader Muammar Ghaddafi, said a U.S. State Department official quoted by CNN.
Prior to the American maneuver, French planes carried out a total of four air raids on Saturday, destroying several armored forces loyal to Colonel Ghaddafi, said a French military source, quoted by AFP.
French fighter planes have fired the first burst of fighting vehicles of the Libyan armed forces, at around 4:45 p.m. GMT. The "no-fly zone" was immediately announced and they began setting up the area.

7:10 p.m. - The Italian agency ANSA: 3 AWACS planes are ready to take off from Trapani (western Sicily), together with other Italian ECR Tornado jets and Eurofighter planes.

7:00 p.m. A defense official told Reuters that the U.S. Navy will send three submarines to Libya for combat operations.

6:00 p.m. French combat planes destroyed four tanks in Libya, in the southwestern city of Benghazi.