Western leaders agree on urgent action after reports of Gaddafi's forces breaking ceasefire to attack Benghazi
French planes have been seen over rebel-held Benghazi as president Nicolas Sarkozy confirmed his country has already taken military action against Libya. "Our determination is total," Sarkozy said after an emergency summit in Paris on Saturday.
Sarkozy said his country's air force was ready to attack Gaddafi's tanks and planes to defend the people of Benghazi: "Our planes are already preventing air attacks on the city."
He said that, despite a ceasefire announcement on Friday, Gaddafi's forces had flouted the UN's demand for an immediate end to violence against his people.
"Our aircrafts are also ready to intervene against tanks, armoured vehicles threatening unarmed civilians."
Officials from the US, Europe and the Arab world announced immediate action to protect civilians as Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's forces continue to clash with rebel fighters.
Prime minister David Cameron said Gaddafi had broken the ceasefire and would face urgent action to prevent more civilian deaths.
"Colonel Gaddafi has made this happen. He has lied to the international community, he has promised a ceasefire, he has broken that ceasefire," Cameron said in Paris.
"He continues to brutalise his own people and so the time for action has come. It needs to be urgent, we have to enforce the will of the United Nations and we cannot allow the slaughter of civilians to continue."
German chancellor Angela Merkel said world powers were united that violence in Libya must end, but said her country would take no part in military action.
Before the summit, Libyan government troops stormed into the rebel capital of Benghazi, apparently ignoring Gaddafi's ceasefire.
Reuters also quoted a French military official confirming the presence of country's reconnaissance aircraft over Libya. The advance by Gaddafi's troops into Libya's second city appeared to be an attempt to pre-empt western air strikes.
Earlier, a Libyan rebel spokesman said Gaddafi's forces had entered Benghazi while a Reuters witness saw a jet circling over the city shot down and at least one explosion near the rebel movement's headquarters in the city.
"They have entered Benghazi from the west. Where are the western powers? They said they could strike within hours," rebel military spokesman Khalid al-Sayeh said.
Meanwhile, hundreds of cars full of refugees headed east from Benghazi towards the Egyptian border.
"I'm here because when the bombing started my children were vomiting from fear," said a doctor, sitting and crying in the lobby of a hotel on the road to Egypt. "All I want to do is get my family to a safe place and then get back to Benghazi to help. My husband is still there."
In the besieged western city of Misrata, residents said government forces shelled the rebel town again on Saturday and they were facing a humanitarian crisis as water supplies had been cut off for a third day.
At the US air force base at Lakenheath, near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, two warplanes were seen to take off. Lakenheath was the launching point of the 1986 bombing of Libya by US planes.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/19/french-planes-enter-libya
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