US Aircraft Still Bombing Libya

War planes from imperialist countries have launched a genocidal campaign against the government and people of the North African state of Libya. Demonstrations in opposition to this latest onslaught by the West have erupted all over the world., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Havana. April 14, 2011

US aircraft still bombing Libya

France calls for more NATO action

WASHINGTON, April 13.—U.S. air force planes are still bombing targets in Libya despite having transferred the command of operations to NATO, the Pentagon admitted today, ANSA reports.

The imperial powers are calling for an accelerated rate and intensity of attacks.

Colonel David Lapan, spokesperson for the Department of Defense, confirmed that U.S. aircraft attacked antiaircraft defense positions of troops loyal to Muammar al Gaddafi.

Lapan’s statement coincided with increasing reports of divisions within NATO, where many commands are insisting that the balance cannot be loaded in favor of the rebels without a greater contribution from U.S. forces.

From Brussels, AFP reported that this Thursday in Berlin, France is to ask its Atlantic Alliance partners to strike land targets in Libya more swiftly, as well as for more aircraft to counter troops loyal to Gaddafi, according to diplomatic sources.

“Just six of the 28 allies are involved in bombing land targets and two are carrying 50% of the campaign against 50%,” they stated.

Military sources have noted that France, with 29 bombers and Britain, with 10, are undertaking half of the work, supported by Belgium, Canada, Denmark and Norway.

Meanwhile, EFE reports that NATO fighter planes have bombed Sirte, Colonel Gaddafi’s birthplace, and Misrata, the country’s third most important city, as stated by Libyan state television, which confirmed that in the latter city, Tripoli Avenue, one of the city’s main arteries, was hit by the allied aviation, causing the death of many people using it.

In Doha, the Qatari capital, it was announced that International Libya Contact Group delegates have agreed to set up a temporary fund to finance the rebels, and have demanded more military and political pressure on Gaddafi.

A communiqué issued at the end of the first meeting of this group, comprising 40 countries and international organizations, expressed tacit support for the self-proclaimed rebel National Transition Council in its attempt to force the Libyan leader to leave the country.

Moussa Ibrahim, spokesperson for the Libyan government, dismissed the authority of the Doha meeting and from Tripoli, defined the attempt to overthrow Gaddafi as imperialist thinking, as well as branding Qatar an “oil corporation.”

SITUATION IN YEMEN AND EGYPT

From Sana, Yemen, ANSA reported that five people died in clashes between opposing groups: two in the capital, two in Aden (south) and one in Yafie, in the southern province of Lahej.

Meanwhile, EFE noted from Cairo that t former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was arrested while remaining hospitalized in an “unstable condition” in the coastal resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, while his sons Alaa and Gamal are in a capital prison.

Translated by Granma International