breaking news this hour a multinational force launches more than one hundred ten missile strikes on libya as warplanes enforce a u.n. sanctions a no fly zone. between the sites hits of the international community steps up if a student killed a no fly zone over libya and it would pull something kristie of civilian casualties and it's killing me to understand from the capital city just a few moments before more. about an emergency summit in paris world powers agreed to stop any aggression from colonel gadhafi. strong words from world leaders who say gadhafi must be stopped from harming innocent civilians all the details coming

up in a few moments. and russia calls the armed intervention into libya regrettable claiming more blood will be shed in renews calls for a cease fire. russia has called for an end to the bloodshed for gadhafi and the opposition to sit down and host talks all the details on our. progress in live from our studios in central moscow this is r t where it is just after two o'clock in the morning it is one o'clock in the morning in libya let me bring you up to speed with the latest news of from there a multinational force has launched a series of strikes against colonel gadhafi forces in libya the coalition is calling it operation odyssey dawn and a brief statement issued just minutes ago colonel gadhafi said libyans will confront what he called the attacks of the colonial crusader the libyan leader

added that the mediterranean has now become a war ground one hundred twelve cruise missiles have been launched from american and british ships and submarines hitting at least twenty two. gets jets from a number of countries have a child colonel gadhafi is ground forces the libyan government reports that there have been civilian casualties the french president was the first to order strikes around the rebel held city of benghazi to prevent attacks against civilians russia has called the decision to take military action in libya regrettable now for more on the developments in libya let's cross now its policy or who's in the capital of tripoli. well there's just been a blast of gunfire which you heard behind me here in the capital city tripoli it's not immediately clear what's going on behind but a short time ago there were protesters here so we certainly are starting to feel the effect of this military strike on on the reaction from the gadhafi regime here from the capital city now so far we are hearing that more than twenty sides have

been hit by these warplanes on the international community increasingly it does seem as if this is an operation that will be happening in the east and the waist of the country the french defense ministry has confirmed that some twenty strange planes have been used in that have been hard hitting tanks and military personnel vehicles now that operation has been concentrated largely in the rebel held town of then darzi and the latest word there from rebel fighters is ekadasi forces had been pushed to be announced first now the same time we hearing from the united states that it is playing a leading role in these operations but not necessarily leading the operations per se but we know though in terms of u.s. assistance is that already they have launched paratroopers strikes from cruise ships we know that there are three submarines and twenty five american ships at those are points in the mediterranean and that u.s. tomahawk missiles have landed in the west of the country in tripoli and in misrata now libyan state television has been reporting for the last few hours that there

are heavy civilian casualties or series of these are happening here in the city of tripoli and i can tell you that we have heard a few ambulances driving past it's are there also happening in the town of bint ghazi they also say that there's been a strike on fuel stores in misrata now the british air force has joined the operations it's not clear exactly what they will be doing but we know that they have the capability to hit targets and also to assist in surveillance it is was also making the point that the pentagon has stressed that this is only the first phase of what they're calling a multi-phase to operate. they're currently there are no american planes flying over here well particularly these reports that we're hearing from libyan state television of heavy casualties this is starting to worry people on the ground on both sides you do not want to see an operation opposite started to be expanded and broaden into something that last years it was widely understood that the libyan air force is not significant and so it should be very difficult for the international

community and to enforce a no fly zone but the question is whether or not under the guise of humanitarian assistance and under the guise of any kind of other arguments this operation will not continue for years the last thing people here want to see is what they call soldiers on libyan soil this is something that not only the government but so be the rebel groups and cells with detainees one of the problems that is facing this whole operation is hunt if it will do is to discern on the ground who are civilians and who are legitimate gadhafi targets if you look for example at a pickup truck it's very hard for a pilot to know whether the people on the truck are actually soldiers or whether they are people fleeing from being cause you know that so far as many as three hundred thousand people have fled libya many thousands again today making their way out of the benghazi city because there are afraid of the developing violence on the ground and certainly what we've seen is an increase in violence an increase in is trying to send and what we expect is there was a growing response from the gadhafi regime itself. we are reporting from tripoli

the capital of libya now world powers decided to enforce the no fly zone at a summit in paris where they were meeting to work out a course of action in libya our europe correspondent daniel bushell has been following what happened there. reports have confirmed that some twenty warplanes are already on libyan airspace from the french side which has been most attractive in this starting with the summit are now in military action they've sent rafael fighter jets miraj fighter jets also surveillance aircraft they say that their key concern is to enforce a no fly zone over libya airspace in effect grounding colonel gadhafi is jets and helicopters and their number one concern is the civilian population in been around the area of pain ghazi to that effect the first military operation will be to enforce the no fly zone over the east of libya where the rebel strongholds are one hundred one hundred fifty kilometer area it comes after a decision at the paris summit where it was decided that the powers would go in and

it was attended by the heads of the united nations the head of the blee also the emir of qatar several foreign ministers of arab nations for example morocco and the united arab emirates arab states saudi arabia qatar jordan and the united arab emirates have said they do back the deployment of a no fly zone over libya an air space and the arab states will play a supporting role obviously key their support in the region of the e.u. powers and are falling into line we can confirm it's only has offered seven of its air bases that we used by nato previously of course it's only just across the mediterranean from libya one of the key air bases that will be used by western powers and we're also seeing other nations coming out and saying they support this for example norway netherlands here in belgium we've also seen canada saying it's fine to just already in the region and really to be deployed within two days they just need to sit out there and western leaders e.u. leaders say they do support this campaign david cameron of the u.k. also angela merkel of germany despite germany's abstention of the u.n.

vote for a no fly zone she says she does back military intervention now they just won't be sending forces themselves germany won't be sending forces but it does support this . now speaking from brazil u.s. president barack obama says it was clear that allied forces had to protect civilians in libya let's get more from our g.'s gammage if you can who's in washington d c. if you could take us through washington's reaction to all of this. well sean as of now we know that the u.s. has launched missiles from its war ships and submarines in the mediterranean targeting a cadaverous air defense systems and the pentagon says the goal is to shape the battlefield for the coalition for forces to take further action they're basically clearing the sky making sure could op is not able to shoot down any planes or the coalition forces and the pentagon also says it is just the beginning of the operation over the next few days more nato ships will converge on leave you know to

enforce a naval blockade french warplanes had earlier carried out strikes on gadhafi is ground forces there have been reports of civilian casualties caused by the attacks those are certainly some very alarming reports where president obama reiterated is that there will be no u.s. troops on the ground but fears are that this operation could grow into something more than just an after to protect civilians the wording of the u.n. resolution that was passed on thursday is basically all inclusive short of occupation of course but there are still strong worries as to the implementation of it there are fears that certain actions taken by international forces could destabilize the situation even more shooting down could office fighter bombers is one thing but arming the rebels for example is something very different reports are coming in egypt's military began shipping arms over the border to leave in rebels and egypt's military as you know was very much influenced by washington those are small arms such as assault rifles and ammunition experts say this could be very

dangerous there are radical elements among those rebels as well and they are on life we can show mercy for their opponents and the fear is that those arms supplies together with the foreign intervention could inflame the situation in the region even further. the events in libya and through the whole ramp up to the situation the u.s. has apparently been cautious not to look like the driving force behind the military action can you give us a reason for why this may be. bowshot exactly former president obama was saying another u.s. officials as well you could tell that the white house is very much wary of being seen as the driving force behind the military actions so most of the work has been done behind the scenes france and the u.k. seem to be in the forefront of this your national effort also western powers they gathered again remind that they have the support of the arab league although at the moment is that likely or was there in could actually isn't this action but it's clear that they want to get arab countries assistance so that it doesn't appear as

if it's just the u.s. cracking down on yet another arab nation there is a one more thing i'd like to talk about it's rarely mentioned in the media coverage of the developments in the via yes the international community is absolutely denied it in condemning qaddafi for this for his actions against the levy and people but when you think about other leaders who got away with attacks on civilians you see you great amount of progress in the way those leaders are treated let's say israel for example it had been bombing the civilian population of the gaza for three weeks in a row in two thousand and eight western powers who are now so often armed trying to protect civilians in libya did nothing literally nothing to stop the massacre of palestinians in gaza or we can take a look at the recent developments in bahrain the leadership there is cracking down on protesters in a terrible way scores are dead and there is no tangible international effort to stop it yemen same story yemen troops protesters there on a daily basis and nothing or pakistan just this friday u.s.

drone killed thirty eight civilians the question many ask is who's going to be held responsible for that and only say that things are now it looks like the international community is very selective when it comes to protecting civilians a levy are they protect them in dozens of other places they turn a blind eye. i thank you very much of course we'll be crossing to you as more developments occur from the u.s. side of things or he's a game of chicken for. now let's bring you up to date it is just a few. o'clock in the morning in libya a multinational force has carried out it carried out a series of attacks against targets around the libyan city of benghazi since the u.n. security council adopted a resolution allowing the use of all the means necessary to protect the civilian population in libya now french fighter jets destroyed several armored vehicles and tanks belonging to colonel gadhafi troops the u.s. claims that libya's air defenses have been severely disabled u.k. forces are also in action over libya turkey is the latest country making the

necessary preparations to implement the no fly zone earlier troops loyal to colonel gadhafi violated a cease fire and reportedly carried out attacks on benghazi. now michel chossudovsky who's the director at the center for research on globalization believes the operation in libya is not a humanitarian mission but an act to overthrow gadhafi. here there is no humanitarian operation. deadly will it using a military material and just say that this is to save the lives of civilians since when do these fighter bombers and save the lives of civilians well it's certainly a war which has the jets of a regime change this of course was not mentioned of the security council resolution but prime minister stephen harper of canada and i'm following the canadian

responses has stated that the objective of this operation is to unseat gadhafi so that the whole humanitarian underpinnings of this war no becoming entirely clear. is that in fact this military coalition has already violated. the resolution which they themselves have forced on the so-called international community article nineteen zero zero zero zero the resolution the united nations security council resolution says to go on on weapons on to. to libya where in fact what are they doing then bringing in weapons and then they're supplying opposition forces with weapons truthy of this war is oil. united states canada well there with the intent of the interests of all.

of the oil corporations and the extension of the influence. to. this is not a humanitarian operation it is a war of conquest and it will have devastating consequences are not only on all of people of libya but more generally now russia's foreign minister says it regrets the international intervention in libya it's called on all sides to do what they can to stop the suffering of peaceful citizens and to put in place an immediate cease fire or he's got to be not as out of our reports. russia very much possibility of the military intervention but of course that was still a possibility when it became reality as it is now russia is still a big step we're seeing great concern over the developments out of their libya crisis calling for an immediate cease fire and for the down position representatives to sit down and try to find

a political solution to the ongoing conflict in libya first worrying i thought the tensions increase the number of civilian casualties this military intervention. led by such as france the united kingdom nightstands elite are saying that preventing further civilian deaths the chairman of russia's foreign upper house of parliament has also spoken about this ongoing intervention in libya saying that the causes for it and therefore the outcomes i'm not a simple i think might be here actually in the resolution the number one thousand nine hundred seventy three its main goal was to defend the civilian population but not to punish the gadhafi regime or overthrow it and so in that respect with think that one thousand nine hundred seventy three resolution is a mostly empty managerial resolution of this as a distinct from humanitarian resolution than a from militarization my personal concern is that any military operation the

wage is conducted by the west in the arab world can lead to very unpredictable scenarios like all the parties involved in the conflict and they get together and start fighting against foreign invaders there were several examples of such scenarios and a history of the greater middle east so i think that we all have to be very cautious now and we all have to think first of all of that the political solution should go before a military solution we think that tick a duffer regime has already lost its internal and international credibility but we think also that people of libya should sell solve their problems themselves. because their voice in the concern and opinion of many here in russia of course the shills and atlas experts like this current military intervention but of course.

the increase in civilian casualties but also the stamp a life situation not only in libya but also in the region as a whole. country knows our of reporting from here in moscow now for more on this breaking news story let's go live to new york and speak with dr yunus a research scholar from columbia university on the topic of the middle east now dr are you there are unconfirmed reports that the united arab emirates and qatar have pledged planes just how significant is it that we're seeing such support from the arab community in this action. actually it's quite important that the arab community or arab states intervene because if they don't participate this will look exactly the way my market darkie has portrayed all this operation that it's basically a crusade it's colonialism coming back to libya and he will start using it to

garner more support for his own tactics to fights. this military intervention so the arab states and actually qatar particular has almost a very personal stake in this because as you probably aware the killed the libyan militia killed qatari citizen recently who was a cameraman from al-jazeera and also from the beginning it was attack in qatar directly and indirectly claiming to. basically triggered all these settled into libya so to sum up i think the participation of the arab state is very important here now it's interesting there could i think claim that he has the support of his own people he's made in one of his latest statements that he's going to open the arms depots to the people to defend their own country given the fact that we have been tar in other countries involved do we really think that he does have the

support is pretty risky isn't it in a country that many claim is teetering on civil war. oh absolutely i don't think that he has that support. you mean by support popular support i don't get it he has it he has been saying this from the beginning one to second speech he made when the whole revolution started the said well i would open the arsenals and give weapons to libyan state fights and actually he knows that he cannot do that because it will be his and he has his own support from his own militias and also people that are have been benefiting from the regime that so far has but popular support i don't think that he has any and all these threats that he'll be arming the the libyans to fight against a military convention i think is just propaganda and i saw as far as an end game if you will is there really a chance that this will end up as another protracted conflict or will we see a rapid conclusion how do you see this playing out. i think if this no fly zone was actually imposed two weeks ago from the beginning maybe we'll have something very

quick i'm afraid that this is and should be a little bit too late he has already moved in many cities his. he he he almost got close to benghazi i think it's very it's getting more and more complicated and skeptical now maybe this will take and uptick in becoming a protracted conflict which will be business from play right into his hands and he will become a hero that is fighting against colonialism actually i was just listening to your libyan state t.v. earlier on to his speech and he used a very important word is just as it proceeds and whoever knows the arab and islamic world when you use the word proceed it conjures up the. past a bloody past and it just doesn't sit well with most arabs and muslims and i've heard the libyan state t.v. play in there the sound of the famous live unease musician marcel how you fare who is famous for his songs of the palestinian resistance so he's already i mean that

he's already you. that's rhetoric of the resistance of him being the hero was going to save the arab and african work so he's used it to create it now now with the idea of a crusade having been already thrown out there and that idea having been involved is it too late for diplomacy we know that russia says it would like to see more of a dialogue and a political solution but now that missiles are raining are we past that point i think we're past that point first of all because the first resolution one thousand nine hundred three which decided to refer to case to the i.c.c. has basically got to wait for any exit strategy for him and for his sons and it's futile so i don't see what how he could decide to negotiate or start now because he doesn't have any exit strategy and the second thing is that the libyan council the transitional council does not accept any negotiation now because basically what do you want with the most people live in people once that this regime has to change he

has to go with his family and the people that have been supporting him i don't think there is any time for the for diplomacy it's like it's never too late thank you very much for joining us now is dr are you from columbia university in new york they know not only keith harmon snow a war correspondent and former u.n. investigator says that the coalition is defending rebel forces which promote western interests. president sarkozy from france has said today the libyan people must be able to choose their own destiny and after these attacks by the french and the united states hundred ten tomahawk missiles and the french flights air flights their attacks then we can return to the table now to get somebody there was no diplomatic diplomatic activity this is an absolutely door of aggression is just another war and the world should really be frightened of the nature of nato and american power and attacking their own dictators well there's

a popular uprising component of the uprising of the rebels and there's also genuine genuine dissonance but there's also islamic radical proxy forces that were backed by the united states during the cold in britain by the during the cold war and there's cia backed forces the front for the national salvation libya these are also part of the so-called rebels and they're backed by other western agencies like the national endowment for democracy who are simply simply there so this is really a very manipulated so-called conflict the people of libya the real true free because they are uprising people of libya are going to suffer the most and it won't be very long once they get on with kidnapping before the people will truly popular uprising not realize is that they have no control over their country because the united states and france and italy. and again british opposition and the page army says his country has been very selective in deciding where military intervention is necessary. i think the tactic yes he was to call

a ceasefire in order to hope one hope to bring about a peaceful resolution of this conflict but it was beginning to look as though he was just trying to buy time for himself i must say i absolutely regret the lack of the ceasefire and i regret what is happening at the moment a lot of innocent people ready to i don't know a lot more look as though they're going to go in the next few hours if they strike against. the military's targets of the regime then they might be effective in doing that but i suspect the real problem is they're going to have to strike against targets in the cities and that results in large numbers of million casualties this is a terrible situation an awful lot of innocent people are going to die because of the situation in libya i think there's a lot of double standards going on here because what is happening in libya is obviously terrible and obviously gadhafi should have heeded the views of ordinary people and come to some kind of accommodation with them all removed himself from office but. there's been no condemnation worthy of anything against bahrain

saudi arabia yemen or a man who have also been killing large numbers of civilians totally over the last few weeks and i think the west is being very selective about this was the u.n. has put in place a resolution calling for a no fly zone and that is obvious they have not used the words regime change will clearly what's intended and if they go ahead with this and it doesn't work then the next thing is going to be what do you do next do you put in ground forces and if you put in ground forces where do they come from because i can't imagine that any arab league country is going to want to put troops into libya for very obvious reasons that the same thing could happen to them remember the arab league is led by a lot of people that are all under threat themselves and now there's a worry that we're getting ourselves involved in yet another war and yet another conflict which is essentially an internal civil war in libya at the same time only six weeks ago. britain was selling arms to libya buying oil from libya british

companies were investing in libya on a day delivery it was investing heavily in this country and so it's a very short space of time that libya has gone from most favored nation to zero and one is sort of one does the speed of all this and many of those that are now calling for part of libya were only a few weeks ago in libya doing business deals and of course we have been a following the latest breaking news developments in libya let's give a quick recap of our main story this hour and a brief statement issued within the last hour colonel gadhafi said that libyans will confront what he has called the attacks of the colonial crusader meanwhile the libyan government has called for an urgent meeting of the u.n. security council french and british fighter jets are in action above the north african country but french air force has denied earlier reports from libyan state t.v. in one of its fighters had been shot down meanwhile over one hundred cruise missiles have been launched from american and british navy ships and submarines in the

mediterranean hitting twenty sites forces loyal to the libyan leader have carried out a series of attacks throughout the day on the city of benghazi the main rebel base russia has said it is regrettable that military action has been taken and it has also called for an end to the bloodshed and has urged all sides in libya had to start. now i'll be back with a recap of our top story in just a few minutes stay with us for all the latest.

the. machine would be so much brighter if you knew about sums from funds to crash and some of. these stunts on t.v. don't come. from. more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of chatter that. shine corporations are on the day .