representatives will attend as well as member states. their aim, to reach a cease-fire and political solution. mr. president, security council 1973 demands that libyan authorities comply with their obstacle -- obligations under international law. so u.n. humanitarian coordinator and his team have had only limited access. we have continued to have limited concerns about the abuses of human rights and violation of international law to basic commodities and services in areas currently under siege. more than 335,000,658 people have left or fled libya since

the beginning of the crisis. some 9,000 remain stranded along libya's borders with tune eeshia -- tunisia and egypt. we have provided evacuation assistance for more than 60,000 people leaving libya. 160.3 million u.s. dollars is 63% funded. so now there are contingency trends. refugees are now totaling as many as 250,000 people. the reports are that food prices in libya are rising sharply with

the price of flour, for example, doubling in recent weeks. the u.n. and libyan authorities continue to be far apart on the scope of the humanitarian situation. no agreement has been reached on how these missions would be carried out. i have to remind all parties currently engaged in hostilities in libya of their obligations under humanitarian law for allowing the safe refuge and unimpeded access by humanitarian organizes to populations in need. my special envoy mission was to reach definite conclusions about the human rights situation. but they found many warning signs, including threat and incitement of gangs.

these threats were aired on television. the u.n. mission about the population of the general state of fear controlled by secret services and new sources of unrest and disappearances. in light of these findings, the special envoy informed the government of libya of the intention by the human rights council to investigate all alleged violations of international ahuman rights law in libya, identify those responsible, make recommendations, and take action. this request was met with ai

positive response even though specific actions were not discussed. mr. president and distinguished members of the council, resolution 1973 will press member states to inform my office immediately of the measures they take or intend to take to protect the civilians, enforce a no-fly zone and facilitate humanitarian obligations. the resolution requires that i report to the council within seven days and every month thereafter on implementation of the resolution, including any resolution on violations of the situation. today i am submitting my first report. so far the united kingdom, france, united states, denmark, canada, italy, qatar, asia,

spain, and the united arab emirates have sent letters of clarification circulating to all council members in line with provisions of 1973. we have also received note ix identification from nato of its decision to commence an alliance pursuant to rezzluges 1970 and 1973. i look forward to being informed including the moslem nism in paragraph 8 of the resolution. i shall also diagnose nature a focal point for coordination within the secretariat. we are receiving a concept of member states as indicated in

paragraph 11 of the resolution. resolution 1973 further requested that i set up a panel of experts to assist a libya community in implementing sanctions. some have already been contacted. it is expected that those will possess expertise in the areas of transportation, maritime, customs, and border control. given the critical situation on the ground it is imperative that we continue to act with speed and decision. the resolution places great responsibilities on the u.n. system. i will show you that -- i assure

you that we will work closely with member states and regional organizations to coordinate a common effective and timely response. thank you, mr. president. >> the u.n. secretary general from about mid-afternoon today. this is the statement waiting live to hear from secretary of state hillary clinton. we're expecting her to make comment on the enforcement of the no-fly zone. within the half-hour, nato associated -- associated press reporting that general anders says nato will enforce the no-fly zone over libya. he said that 28 member nages will attempt to prevent attacks from the forces of muammar gaddafi. that decision, writes the associated press, came after six days of negotiations and a breakthrough today when turkey, nato's only muslim member, agreed to enforce the plan.

nbc's andrea mitchell is tweeting that nato reaches a split decision so far. they will take the lead on a no-fly zone, but they won't take the rest of the u.n. mandate. her comments to come. waiting to hear from secretary clinton. we know secretary clinton will be headed to london next week as part of the conference on lib -- libya there. she will also speak to members of congress in a classified briefing expected to happen on the house floor next wednesday along with defense secretary gates, the national intelligence director, james clapper, and michael mullen. when congress reconvenes next week. we are expecting shortly hillary clinton on the latest on libya.

>> we are expecting to hear from secretary clinton at about 6:15. obviously delayed a little bit. in the meantime we will take you to the pentagon to a briefing held this afternoon by vice admiral william gorfy --

gortney. this is about 25 minutes. >> good afternoon, everyone. thank you for being with me. let's get to it. on the slide to my left, you will see a quick snapshot of what we've been doing the last day or so. i would like to point out, ships at sea have launched another 14

tomahawk missiles. and scud missile garrisons near tripoli. we had a total of 140, 49 of which were strike-related. meaning they were designed to hit a designated target. of those totals, roughly have were flown by partner nations, and nearly all or 75% of those in support of the no-fly zone are being passed by coalition partners. next slide, please. this is a good depiction of what the no-fly zone looks like. some of these missions are what we call defensive combat air. you can see these missions

depicted in blue. these are designed to keep the air space free of libyan aircraft. all of these are being flown by our partner nation pilots. the other stations, designated in red, are interdiction missions. the united states is flying about half of all of these missions. you can see the no-fly zone as it exists today running coast-to-coast across the northern part of the country and extending further south. as i mentioned, we will -- you can get a sense here of the international contributions to the no fly zone mission. more than 350 aircraft are involved in some capacity, either enforcing the no-fly zone or proteching the civilian populous. it is fair to say that they are growth in both size and capability.

today there are nine other contributing nations, to include qatar and thousands of other military missions involved in this effort. they are deployed across europe and based on the shore and on any one of the 38 ships at sea. next slide, please. you can see here a quick view of the maritime laydown with most ships operating to the north of libya. these are positions where the ships are moving about, but it gives you a sense of the size and scope of the effort being extended by the scope of the mission. 26 of these ships are being contributed from partner nations today, up from 22 on sunday. the united states has a total of 12. i note that the presence of two aircraft carriers, francis charles degall of italy both have combat here and apart. where does that leave us today? the focus now is on several things. we continue to patrol the no-fly zone. we are looking to strengthen it with more aircraft and terrain

cover. we continue to use the integrated air capabilities, logistics, and ammunition supply. we are planning to deliver humanitarian assistance by government and nongovernmental agencies. we will continue to attack ground forces that threaten the lives of the libyan people. let me be clear, because i think there is still some confusion out there. when and where forces threaten the lives of their own citizens, it will be attacked when and where regime forces fly coalition aircraft, they will be attacked. when and where they attempt to break the emming, they will be stopped. our message to the regime force is simple -- stop fighting, stop killing your own people, stop obeying the orders of colonel gaddafi. to the extent you ignore these orders, we will continue to hit you and make it more difficult for you. lastly, we are working very hard on the military side to be ready to hand over the lead of this

operation to a coalition command stur as early as this weekend. as secretary gates said, this is a complicated process. to some degree it is being done on the fly. i think that speaks to the speed at which everything has happened over the last few days. we also remember that it was only last thursday evening when the u.n. voted the resolution into effect and only last thursday when the strikes began. by sunday the no-fly zone was effectively in place, and since that time there have been next to no combat sortis flown by the regime and no reports of civilian casualties by forces. the only casualties known of are those caused by the libyan government. next slide, please. this slide shows the disposition of services on saturday afternoon eastern standard time. as you can see the regime was

under attack in benghazi, misrata, and tripoli. they not only want to recapture the city in benghazi but to readminister the transitional council. despite cease-fires, forces continued to attack in misrata and benghazi. next slide please. today coalition operations have rendered libyan air forces ineffective and forced forces to withdraw from misrata. we will continue to apply pressure where we can through strikes on their logistics command weapons capability to compel them to stop killing their own people. no one in the u.s. military is under-estimating the challenge here. even as we transition the lead of this effort to a different

command structure we will continue to attempt to help enforce the u.n. mandate. at this time i would like to take your questions. >> admiral, you mentioned next to no combat sortis. aside from the aircraft, i think you said next to no combat sortis by gaddafi forces. aside from the forces shot down by the french, have there been any other aircraft detected. also, you went over some areas where the gaddafi forces are attacking. can you go over other areas where attacks are increasing or decreasing? >> let's go over combat air forces. the reason i chose the language that i did is, i don't want to imply that we've been 100% effective, but they are not

effective at all. we have not detected them flying. that does not mean they haven't been flying. we just have not detected them flying. we are continuing 24 hours a day airborne early warning. 75% provided by the coalition. i am fairly confident if they had been flying, we would have detected it. as to where they are fighting, the areas we mentioned, around misrata and in these particular areas where we are working around the city to go after the c-2 architecture. their depots to put pressure on the city itself. but we are not striking inside the city. >> one of your first charts was a layout of where your co-lig was flying before they go to

their air patrols or fight targets. can you talk us through what a typical sorti looks like for you. how many are they taking, and what kind of wear and tear is this taking on the air power involved here? >> let's go to slide 3, please. the aircraft they are launching from many bases around europe and from the two aircraft carriers as well as our amphibious ship, where they are launching from, we're leaving those nations to announce for it. they will be refueling on the way there, and they will take stations on the stations annotated on the slide. from there, if they are in the defense combat mission, they will stay by the early warning aircraft. probably tank one or two times

while they are on station. always maintaining airplane flow. they will keep somebody that has enough gas to prosecute to push inland if they need to, and they will probably tank on the way home. i would say the missions are on the order of five to six hours in length. depending on where the airplanes are taking off from. >> after the coalition partner takes the lead, can you give us any sense of what the level of participation will be by the united states? alaa: it depends on the type of participation. our guide was very clear. we are going to give up the command positions we've said from the very beginning. help enable the command in control but give up the command positions and be participants in that process but not be in command. they will we will continue to

provide predominantly those capabilities that we have that are unique that enable the oprages as well as additional -- operations as well as additional compafts that the coalition may not have that we do bring to the fight. an example would be tankers, some of our i.s.r. platforms, and i would anticipate that we would provide some of the interdix -- interdix -- in terdiction strength packages as well. >> we have been asking for days communications between the u.s. and rebel forces on the ground. could you answer in english what that communication is? >> we are not communicating with the coalition on the ground. we -- i misspoke. we are not communicating with the opposition forces on the

ground. we are still seeing the same reporting in diplomatic channels, but when it comes to opposition forces and our military forces, we are not communication. >> it looks like, according to according to what we're hearing, what will happen to the change in command? >> because the change is still

ongoing through what the command structure will be and what it will look like, and because of the nature of the partners enjoying capability and come to bear, they will be supporting missions here in the next couple days as they are bedded down and redy to get on the air tacking border. i would see it being phased over time. the slope of that phase needs to be worked -- we still need to do more work on it. >> so you think it could take two weeks, three weeks, a month? any idea at all? >> i would not hazard to guess that at this point. i think we will have more clarity on that as the days progress. >> one follow-up. the french say they shot a libyan warplane after it landed at misrata. does the coalition, the u.s., have any idea where that plane came from or where it had been? if it was even in the air? >> we don't have any of those

details yet. we received from the french, the pilot, the mission information. we are awaiting more of those details. >> can you shed light on the air-to-ground activity. it seems like you are not attacking vehicles, artillery, or rockets, you are going after fuel. can you give the public a sense of -- are you pounding the heck out of their vehicles? tanks? >> when it comes to the fielded forces, those fielded forces that we can positively identify as a fielded force, as a tank, as an armored personnel carrier, as a dreaded rocket launcher that the air crew are able to make a collateral damage estimate that does not put the people we are trying to protect at risk, then we are taking those targets under attack. as well as any command and control facility.

as well as any air-to-missile defense system, those as well. >> shed any light on this notion that we're sending messages to the libyan military. to what extent are you used commando type airplanes and sortis to face messages on to their military sequences to tell them. >> yeah, well, as far as the message, we're using every tool we have available in our tool kifment i won't indicate anymore specifics than that. we're telling them as long as the forces continue to threaten or attack the libyan people, they will be subject to attack. our message is to -- don't follow the regime's orders, don't attack the people. cease fighting. stay in place. abandon your equipment. but if you threaten the libyan apeople, attack the libyan people, we'll take you under attack. >> are you dropping leaflets. >> we're using every tool we

have in our toolbox. >> what exactly is included. are you talking warplanes, tankers, commander solo? what do you mean? >> we're talking the range of migs. whether it is tanker, the i.s.r., whether it is the airborn early warning, defensive mission, combat air control. as well as we are combining the interdix mission with the -- interdiction method with aircraft combined to attack the surface-to-air missiles. we're combining that. >> is it air space? >> yes, sir, but that's why we have a coalition air component commander to write that air-tasking order. one of the primary missions is to make sure the effect is created on the battle field and that the flow of airplanes to

and from and that they don't bump. >> have any libyan fores loyal to gaddafi quit fighting? >> i'm not aware of any at this point in time. >> as you prepare to hand over the command lead can you give a sense of what that involves to hand over operational command? what's involved and how tricky is that to do? >> it's hard work. >> i will go back and say less than sfench days to go tonight. 1,500 eastern time we started on the mission. that night we took out an air field and we immediately went after with tactical aircraft the field of forces at benghazi. we did it with the forces we had available, with the command and

control architecture u.s. led. it is a fairly diverse chain of command. operationy and tackcally -- tactically controlled. also the african commander, general hamm, is up in europe as well. to work thatamcommand and control architecture with different nations in different locations, that also then has the connect activity and i.t. support. the doctrine worked out. that is really, really hard work. i think it is phenomenal how far we have come thus far and the pros out there are working through the details. >> vice admiral, the way things have gone at the moment, it looks like it is heading for a

stalemate. i know you said you are enforcing the no-fly zone, but president obama has called for gernl gaddafi to go. will you consider helping the rebels more directly, such as the way u.s. forces did in afghanistan with special forces on the ground? it looks like at the moment the rebels can't actually break out unde