analysis of what s happening there today, richard. but certainly it is one could expect coalition forces to be moving to assist the operation and defense. nic robertson in the libyan capital of tripoli, thank you. richard, initially in the operation odyssey dawn, we were hearing about french and british planes above the skies of libya. we re hearing more about the united states role now. maybe getting more involved than initially thought. moving beyond firing cruise missiles from navy ships in the mediterranean. sandra endofrom the pentagon, hello to you once again. first, we just heard about other countries and their planes. but we re, in fact, hearing the u.s. does have and did have planes in the air. absolutely, strchlt j. we know this morning that 19 u.s. warplanes constructed strike operations overnight. and this is according to a spokesperson from u.s. africa command who says the operations
while to get over libya. basically, they did the same thing the brits did, fly from french bases, however, they are rebasing their aircraft down in coursica, which will make round trip as a lot shorter. able to do what apparently is going to be the french role. not really being very specific about this over defense ministry. but the frnch role will be close air support around the benghazi area. taking out artillery or armored vehicles that appear over there, and appear likely to auto tack in benghazi. this morning, according to reports from various news agencies, there were burned out vehicles along the main road out of benghazi and appeared to have been multiple rocket launcher types of vehicles that were destroyed. it s unclear, but the french have said they have destroyed a number of libyan army vehicles. richard. jim, the united states has
gadhafi s forces. we were first hearing forces were stationary, about 60 miles west of benghazi. next thing we knew, there were tanks coming into benghazi. probably a reconnaissance element, the old soviet doctrine that we believe libyans were trained in. they would have put a probe in, either tanks got knocked out or pulled back. it wasn t a serious sustained effort. and it was after that effort began that the french came in and struck the libyan tanks, and so thus far, we re not hearing of more conflict in benghazi today, and so thus far, that french action was successful in dissuading an attack on the early morning hours of sunday. so far in benghazi, a place of much action in the past two days as we know before the air strikes before the coalition began. also, are you seeing this play out with this no-fly zone and the strikes that have been
military not just the u.s., but also coalition forces will be safe to fly over. that is the main target. they are also thinking about trying to disable communications as well on the ground in libya. you re talking about a leader who is basically savvy and is trying to move a lot of his resources and force it into major cities. the u.s. and coalition forces do not want to target, of course, innocent civilians. that will be a challenge, looking ahead. sandra endo, from the pentagon today. we appreciate you as always. thank you. his defiance led to strikes against his country. now moammar gadhafi is criticizing arab leaders for doing nothing to stop it. reaction from the arab world, straight ahead this is cnn. making your craving for a sweet & salty bar irresistible,
back to the situation in libya, where we are hearing that american warplanes are taking part in operations over libya right now, and that includes stealth bombers which are attacking critical targets inside the country. cnn s chief national correspondent john king take as a closer look at how operation odyssey dawn started and crucially why specific targets have been chosen. it is called operation odyssey dawn, and the initial targets, mostly along the northern libyan coastline. why? those are the major cities, major gas supplies. the reasons they were along the coast in the early days this is where moammar gadhafi has his most powerful weaponry. the purple circle, s-200. s-5, and russian made, surface to air missiles, and those were the biggest targets in the initial strikes and will continue to be targeted.