NATO hits 8 Kadhafi ships; Tripoli calls Obama 'delusional'

Updated at: 0741 PST, Saturday, May 21, 2011
TRIPOLI: NATO warplanes hit eight vessels of Moamer Kadhafi's navy, the alliance said Friday as US President Barack Obama answered constitutional questions regarding the length of the Libyan conflict.

Also Friday, the United States said it delivered 120,000 Halal meals to Libyan rebels as part of US plans to provide $25 million in non-lethal aid to forces fighting Kadhafi's regime.

Meanwhile, authorities in Tripoli slammed Obama as "delusional" for earlier suggesting that the veteran Libyan leader's departure is inevitable.

They also strongly denied reports that Kadhafi's wife and daughter had fled to Tunisia and that Oil Minister Shukri Ghanem had defected.

NATO said it carried out "precision air strikes" in the ports of Tripoli, Al-Khums and Sirte, striking eight vessels.

"Given the escalating use of naval assets, NATO had no choice but to take decisive action to protect the civilian population of Libya and NATO forces at sea," said Rear Admiral Russell Harding, deputy head of the NATO-led air war.

Explosions were heard in the Libyan capital early Friday, hours after the air strikes targeted the city's port, with a ship still ablaze from the raid.

Harding insisted that all of the targets hit were military but government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim accused NATO of seeking to scare international shipping firms into steering clear of government-held ports.

"Whatever the ship that has been hit, it is clearly a message sent by NATO to the international maritime companies not to send any more vessels to Libya," Ibrahim told reporters.

British aircraft targeted Al-Khums, the nearest naval base under the control of Kadhafi forces to the rebel-held city of Misrata, British defence staff spokesman Major General John Lorimer said.

"As well as hitting two corvettes in the harbour, the Royal Air Force Tornados successfully targeted a facility in the dockyard constructing fast inflatable boats, which Libyan forces have used several times in their efforts to mine Misrata and attack vessels in the area," Lorimer said.

"The destruction last night of the facility and a significant stockpile of the boats will reduce the regime's ability to sustain such tactics," he added.

NATO has increased the pressure on Kadhafi by hitting several command and control centres in Tripoli in recent days.

"This has limited Kadhafi's ability to give orders to his forces. It has also constrained his freedom of movement; effectively he's gone into hiding," NATO's Wing Commander Mike Bracken said in Brussels.

In Tripoli, the government spokesman described as "delusional" Obama's prediction in a speech Thursday that the veteran Libyan leader's departure is inevitable.

"Obama is still delusional -- he believes the lies that his own government and own media spread around the world," Ibrahim said.

"It's not Obama who decides whether Moamer Kadhafi leaves Libya or not. It's the Libyan people who decide their future." (AFP)