The U.S. and its allies worked to expand the protective shield in the skies over Libya on Tuesday, while allies skirmished over who would take command of the continuing international operation.
Allied air patrols will soon cover the entire northern tier of Libya, enforcing last week's United Nations resolution authorizing military action to stop the Libyan leader from attacking civilian opponents, U.S. Gen. Carter Ham, current commander of the military campaign, said Monday.
The coalition would expand the no-fly zone from Benghazi, the eastern city that is the de facto capital of the beleaguered rebels, to the coastal oil-refinery city of Brega, to Misrata east of Tripoli, and eventually to Tripoli, he said.
Prime Minister David Cameron told Parliament on Monday that "coalition forces have largely neutralized Libyan air defenses and as a result the no-fly zone has effectively been put in place in Libya."
President Barack Obama on Monday reiterated that the U.S. will run the campaign for only a limited time, handing command to coalition partners "in a matter of days and not a matter of weeks." The U.S. will be "one of the partners among many," Mr. Obama said on a visit to Chile.
A key question was what role the North Atlantic Treaty Organization would take. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini on Monday called for command of operations enforcing the no-fly zone to be passed to NATO, suggesting the use of Italy's seven military bases by coalition forces lacked proper coordination. U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron also said NATO should lead operations. But France, which just rejoined NATO's command structure in 2009 after three decades, indicated it doesn't want NATO to play a central role.
With Col. Moammar Gadhafi's forces reeling from a weekend of pounding by bombs and missiles, the coalition briefly slowed the pace of attacks.
Despite coalition missile strikes Sunday on buildings in the Tripoli compound where Col. Gadhafi lives, both Mr. Obama and Mr. Cameron stressed that killing the Libyan strongman wasn't a goal of the operation. Mr. Cameron said, "I have been clear I think Libya needs to get rid of Gadhafi, but [while] we are responsible for trying to enforce the Security Council resolution, the Libyans will choose their own future."
Still, the U.K. refused to shut the door on the possibility, with Defense Minister Liam Fox describing Col. Gadhafi as "a legitimate target" and, according to a person familiar with the matter, U.K. government lawyers saying targeting the Libyan ruler would be legal under the U.N. resolution.
With targeted air strikes that pummeled troops loyal to Moammar Gadhafi, the international coalition easily created a no-fly zone in Libya's north. WSJ's Neil Hickey reports from Washington.
The Arab League, not the U.S., should be responsible for containing Moammar Gadhafi's ambitions in Libya, Council on Foreign Relations President Emeritus Leslie Gelb says. In the "Big Interview" with the Journal's John Bussey, Gelb also warns against deepening U.S. involvement in that country.
The Security Council met Monday and decided to reconvene Thursday to hear a briefing from the U.N. secretary general on how the resolution was being implemented, diplomats said.
President Obama sent a formal notification to Congress Monday that emphasized the limited nature of U.S. involvement. The U.S. hasn't deployed ground forces into Libya, the letter noted. It said U.S. forces "are conducting a limited and well-defined mission in support of international efforts to protect civilians and prevent a humanitarian disaster." Nonetheless, American officials clearly hoped the campaign would create cracks in the colonel's inner circle and provoke a palace coup.
The three-day-old air campaign has, at least for now, stopped a Libyan government attack that appeared on the verge of extinguishing the month-long rebellion. "We know that regime ground forces that were in the vicinity of Benghazi now possess little will or capability to resume offensive operations," Gen. Ham said.
Emboldened rebels in the east began trying to retake ground lost earlier, pressing Ajdabiya, where heavy fighting was reported at the city's entrances.
There were reports of continued fighting in Misrata, the country's third-largest city, which is about 125 miles east of Tripoli. Gen. Ham said an effort to establish a no-fly zone there was under way. "Until we do that, our ability to influence activities on the ground remains somewhat limited," he said.
While the coalition shifted its major focus to patrolling airspace, strikes continued against the regime's command-and-control facilities and air defenses. Jets were heard over Tripoli on Monday night, followed by antiaircraft fire.
Moussa Ibrahim, a government spokesman in Tripoli, said an airport in the southern city of Sebha was hit and so was an area known as Kilometer 27, west of the capital on the coastal road to the town of Zawiya, which government forces recaptured from rebels earlier this month.
Kilometer 27 is home to a military base for the Khamis Brigade, a special-forces unit of the Libyan army headed by one of Col. Gadhafi's sons. When reporters asked for details, Mr. Ibrahim told them they ought instead to be asking "philosophical, moral and legal questions" about the "barbaric aggression."
Dozens of Col. Gadhafi's supporters, many of them young men from poor Tripoli neighborhoods, flocked to his headquarters in Bab Azizya to act as volunteer human shields, dancing and waiving green flags. This was a day after coalition airstrikes hit a building there.
Mr. Ibrahim said the airport in the city of Sirte, east of Tripoli, was hit both on Saturday and Sunday. Sirte is Col. Gadhafi's birthplace.
Asked about rebel-controlled Misrata, Mr. Ibrahim said it was "liberated days ago" but government forces have avoided entering it because of "hard-core Islamic extremists" holed up inside.
Rebels in Misrata painted a different picture. A man named Mohammed said Misrata's power has been cut and few food deliveries are reaching the city, because of a siege by government forces from all directions.
He said 11 people were killed Monday, mostly by sniper fire, as government forces controlled one street and posted snipers on rooftops.
Meanwhile, British Naval commander Captain Karl Evans said coalition warships in the Mediterranean had prevented Libya's navy from firing at targets onshore.
Despite the military progress, the political unity of the coalition appeared fragile.
Italian Foreign Minister Frattini said, "We believe that the time has come to go beyond a coalition of volunteers to a more coordinated approach under NATO."
A spokesman for the French army said NATO's participation should be in a "supporting role."
NATO diplomats said Turkish objections continued to halt the alliance's participation in the no-fly zone. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country's support is possible but only if NATO's operation doesn't turn into an occupation to divide up Libya's oil.
Russian Prime Minister Vladmir Putin touched a sensitive issue when he likened the Libya mission to "some kind of Medieval call to the crusades." That provoked a rare public dissent by President Dmitry Medvedev, who called Mr. Putin's language "absolutely unacceptable" and defended his own decision not to have Russia veto the U.N. resolution.
