Now it’s Moammar Khadafy’s turn to learn firsthand the meaning of the words “shock and awe.”
In an action dubbed Operation Odyssey Dawn, the United States, France and Britain launched the first fierce strikes yesterday in a massive international military action aimed at quashing the Libyan dictator’s attacks on opponents of his repressive regime.
As part of the astounding opening salvo, US and British forces unleashed a ferocious cruise-missile attack on the area around Tripoli, Libya’s capital, and the western city of Misrata, the Pentagon said.
The brutal barrage of a reported 114 Tomahawk cruise missiles, unleashed from a flotilla of US and British ships and submarines, struck “more than 20 integrated air-defense systems and other air-defense facilities ashore,” said US Vice Adm. William Gortney. At least 48 people were killed and 150 wounded, Libyan state media said.
The hail of rockets, which began blasting their targets at around 3 p.m. EDT, left Khadafy’s “air defense systems . . . severely disabled,” another US official said.
“We are on the leading edge of a coalition military operation,” Gortney said. “This is just the first phase of what will like be a multiphase operation.”
Early today, British Tornado GR4 fighter jets launched Stormshadow missiles into the war-torn nation, prompting a volley of anti-aircraft fire from Libyan forces. The 3,000-mile round-trip mission was Britain’s longest-range bombing mission since the Falklands war in 1982.
Throughout the night, explosions and anti-aircraft fire were heard in several coastal cities and bombs fell near Khadafy’s Tripoli bunker.
Soon after the offensive began, Libya called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.
One of the main targets of yesterday’s bombardment was Libya’s SA-5 surface-to-air missiles, which could take down allied aircraft. The strikes also focused on early-warning radar and communication facilities.
The attacks were supported by a fleet of 25 coalition ships — including the destroyer USS Barry — massed in the Mediterranean, some near the Libyan coast. The force included three US submarines armed with Tomahawk missiles.
US forces also engaged in airborne electronic operations to block Khadafy from communicating with his forces, according to the Times of London.
Residents in Misrata, Libya’s third-largest city, told Reuters that strikes targeted a military air base where Khadafy’s loyalists are stationed — but the dictator’s forces fled shortly before the missiles rained down.
The Libyan air force headquarters at the Mateiga air base in eastern Tripoli had also been targeted, according to Mohammed Ali, a spokesman for the exiled opposition group the Libyan Salvation Front. It wasn’t clear if the target had been struck.
After the offensive, the United States planned to send a high-altitude, unmanned Global Hawk surveillance plane to inspect the damage.
As the bombardment unfolded, Western powers were keeping a close eye on Khadafy’s 10-ton stockpile of mustard gas in the town of Sirt, fearing that the dictator will use the chemical weapons to kill large numbers of his people.
The show of force from the international coalition — which had warned Khadafy on Friday that it would use force if he ignored a UN resolution demanding a cease-fire — followed defiant attacks earlier in the day by Khadafy loyalists on the rebel-held city of Benghazi.
The assault only strengthened world leaders’ resolve to take on the dictator bent on crushing the opposition that has threatened his four-plus decades of iron-fisted rule.
“This is not an outcome the US or any of our partners sought,” President Obama said from Brazil, where he was starting a five-day visit to Latin America. “We cannot stand idly by when a tyrant tells his people there will be no mercy.”
Obama insisted the United States would not send ground forces to Libya — although he said he was “deeply aware” of the risks of taking any military action.
“Our consensus was strong, and our resolve is clear. The people of Libya must be protected,” Obama said.
But Khadafy loyalists were also digging in as thousands gathered at the dictator’s heavily fortified complex in Tripoli last night, claiming they were prepared to use themselves as human shields.
“We want to die for our president,” Wali Madjdali, 35, a computer engineer, told the Times of London. “We will stay here all night. Even three or four nights if we have to.”
Dozens more Khadafy supporters stood on an airport runway in the south of the country.
The strongman tried to rally his troops on state television, vowing to turn the Mediterranean and North Africa into a blood-soaked battleground.
“It is now necessary to open the stores and arm all the masses with all types of weapons to defend the independence, unity and honor of Libya,” ranted Khadafy, who called the allied action “a second crusade.”
Before the strike, the madman made a whiny, last-ditch round of written appeals to Western leaders — including a bizarre personal kiss-up to Obama, whom he called “our son.”
“I have said to you before that even if Libya and the United States enter into war, God forbid, you will always remain my son and I have all the love for you as a son, and I do not want your image to change with me,” he wrote.
Among the day’s other developments:
* Hours before the Tomahawk attack, the French led off the assault when five warplanes swooped over Libya, firing at several military vehicles belonging to Khadafy’s regime near Benghazi. Italian aircraft joined in later with surveillance sorties. Five US surveillance planes also were in the area, officials said.
* A rebel plane went down in a crash in the southern part of Benghazi. Khaled el-Sayeh, the opposition military spokesman, said the plane was an old MiG-23 that belonged to the rebels and that it had been hit by Khadafy’s forces.
The plane burst into flames and nose-dived into the ground. Pictures showed the pilot ejecting, but he was believed to have been killed.
* An anti-Khadafy journalist, Mohammed al-Nabous was killed by snipers in Benghazi, and four al-Jazeera reporters were detained in western Libya.