AGOSTINI-STEPHAN/AFP
A Rafale jet fighter takes off from Corsica. French reconnaissance planes entered Libyan airspace on Saturday after Moammar Khadafy defied his own cease-fire and sent his forces into rebel-held Benghazi.
"Our planes are already preventing air attacks on the city," French President Nicholas Sarkozy said.
"The time for action has come," British Prime Minister David Cameron said.
The first wave of military action by the West came after the U.S. joined Britain, France and other countries in Paris to discuss enforcement of a no-fly zone over Libya.
Speaking from Brazil, President Obama weighed in, saying, "The people of Libya must be protected."
An increasingly desperate Khadafy warned the West to stay away.
"You will regret it if you dare to intervene in our country," the loony strongman vowed in a letter read by a government spokesman in Tripoli.
In a sign of Khadafy's growing desperation, state-run media also raised the specter of human shields, claiming citizens had converged on some of the target the West could strike.
Despite a cease-fire declared only a day before, pro-Khadafy forces entered Benghazi early Saturday and continued to shell the city.
A warplane was shot down, and rebel leaders said the drove out Khadafy's henchmen after hours of fighting that left at least two dozen dead.
Cries of "We are victorious!" could be heard in the streets as the rebels claimed they had seized four government tanks.
One of Moammar Khadafy's warplanes is shot down. Niedringhaus/AP
There were reports that Zintan in western Libya was being bombarded and tanks were approaching.
"There are tanks heading towards the southern entrance of Zintan, around 20 to 30 tanks, which are hitting the city and residential areas in the south," a witness told Al Arabiya.
After Khadafy threatened terrible retribution against rebels who did not surrender immediately, the U.N. Security Council authorized a no-fly zone over Libya earlier this week.
A Khadafy spokesman on Saturday read letters to President Obama and other world leaders calling the resolution "invalid" and an "injustice."
"Libya is not yours. Libya is for the Libyans," he wrote.
Cameron, the British leader, said Khadafy has no one to blame but himself.
"Colonel Khadafy has made this happen. He has lied to the international community, he has promised a ceasefire, he has broken that ceasefire," he said in Paris.
"He continues to brutalize his own people...we have to enforce the will of the United Nations and we cannot allow the slaughter of civilians to continue."
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2011/03/19/2011-03-19_libya_ceasefire_falls_to_pieces_as_moammar_khadafy_attacks_rebels_in_benghazi.html
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