these stunts on t.v. come. in multinational force launches and more than one hundred ten missile strikes on the libya. body twenty sites hit the international community's gets up if it's simply a no fly zone over libya and the full of increasing civilian casualties and dates the need to see in the capital city in just a few moments formal. at an emergency summit in paris and world powers agreed to stop any aggression from colonel gadhafi. strong words from world leaders who say gadhafi must be stopped from call me into some civilians all the details coming up

in a few moments. and to russia says the armed intervention in libya is regrettable claiming more blood will be shed it reduced calls for seems far. russia has called for an end to the bloodshed orthodoxy of the opposition to sit down and post talks all the details are. broadcasting live from our studios in central moscow where it is just after five o'clock in the morning just after four o'clock in the morning in libya where we continue to follow this developing story a multinational force has launched a series of strikes against colonel gadhafi forces in libya the coalition is calling it operation odyssey dawn. filipe think the libyan government has demanded an urgent meeting of the united nations security council in

a brief statement issued late saturday evening colonel gadhafi said that libyans will confront what he called the attack of the polonium crusader libyan state television is reporting a hospital in tripoli and fuel storage depot in misrata have both been hit the libyan government reports there have been civilians t's after one hundred twelve cruise missiles were launched by american and british navy jets from a number of countries have attacked colonel gadhafi is ground forces 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 who's in the capital tripoli has more on the developments in libya. 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 from 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 not an operation has been concentrated largely in the rebel held town of being ghazi and the latest word there some rebel fighters as ekadasi forces have pushed to be announced but what we know though in terms of you is assistance is that already they have launched a pear tree strikes and we know that there were three submarines and twenty five american ships at this one point 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 it's as if these are happening here in the city of tripoli and i continue that we have heard a few ambulances driving past it is 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 yet 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 with was making the point that the pentagon has traced that this is only the slowest phase of what they call in and multi-phase operation and they're currently there are no american planes flying overhead 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 like this that 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 such soldiers on libyan soil this is something that not only the government but sophie the rebel groups themselves would detail is one of the problems that is facing this whole operation is hundreds of people to this 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 whether they are people fleeing something cars even if it's so far as many as three hundred thousand people have fled libya many thousands again today making their way out of there being gods the 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 or do you suppose we are reporting from libya in the capital tripoli world powers decided to enforce of the

no fly zone at a summit in paris where they were moving toward out of course of action in libya our correspondent daniel bushell has been following what happened there. reports have confirmed some twenty warplanes already on libyan airspace from the french side which has been most active in this starting with the summit are now in military action they've sent rafale fighter jets neeraj fighter jets also surveillance aircraft they say that they 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 the around the area of goals the 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 by 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 arab league also

the area 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 near space and the arab states will play a supporting role obviously key their support in the region for the e.u. powers are now falling into line we can confirm italy has offered seven of its air bases that were 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 it's just already in the region and ready to be deployed within two days they just need to sit there and western leaders e.u. leaders say they do support this campaign david cameron of the u.k. also anglo 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 . or does daniel bushell reporting from brussels for our team now michel chossudovsky who is the director of the center for research on globalization believes that the operation in libya is in fact an act to overthrow gadhafi. it is not a humanitarian operation it is they believe all that you were seeing was military material and just say that this is to save the lives of civilians since when you do these fighter bombers and save the lives of civilians. a war which has the jets of regime change this of course was not mentioned of the security council resolution prime minister stephen harper health canada and i'm

following the canadian responses has stated that the objective of this operation is to unseat khadafi so that the whole humanitarian underpinnings of this war you know we're coming entirely clear aspect is that in fact this military coalition is already imply a way to. the resolution which they themselves have balls. the whole international community to call nineteen zero zero zero the resolution the united nations security council resolution says to go on the weapons on to. to libya but in fact what are they doing they're bringing in weapons and they're supplying the opposition forces with weapons through feet of this law is oil and. united states canada all of their with the intent of the interests of the oil

prince of the oil corporations and the extension of the inflows into one big issue into africa this is not. a humanitarian operation it is a war of conquest and it will have devastating consequences all and not only on own all the people of libya but most generally speaking. brazil u.s. president barack obama said it was clear that allied forces had to protect civilians in libya meanwhile a u.s. national security official claims that libya's air defenses have been severely disabled or jesus has the latest from washington d.c. . the u.s. has launched missiles from its war ships and submarines in the mediterranean targeting it could daffy's air defense systems and the pentagon says the goal is to shape the vattel field for the coalition for forces to take further action they're basically clearing the sky making sure to drop is not able to shoot down any planes

of 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 that are earlier carried out strikes on could obvious ground forces there have been reports of civilian casualties caused by the attacks those are certainly some very alarming reports or 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 effort to protect civilians the wording of the u.n. resolution that was passed on thursday is basically an all inclusive 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 obvious five hours is one thing but arming the rebels for example is something very different and we are coming in egypt's military began shipping arms over the border to leave and egypt's military as you

know is 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 like you control merciful their opponents and the fear is that those arms supplies together with the foreign intervention could inflame the situation in the region even further 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 again and again remind that they have the support of the arab league although at the moment it's as likely or was. they're in good 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 west cracking down on yet another arab nation there is one more thing i'd like to talk about it's rarely mentioned in the media coverage of the developments in levy yes the international community has 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 and severely as you say you read i'm honestly par for seeing the way the leaders are treated. 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 are now so often armed so trying to protect civilians in libya did nothing literally nothing to stop the massacre of palestinians in gaza so 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 for pakistan just this fight a u.s. drone kills thirty eight civilians the question many ask is who's going to be held responsible for that and only say as things are now it looks like the international community is very selective when it comes to protecting severely as

a lever they protect them in dozens of other places they turn a blind eye or g. is going to change hands comments from washington d.c. now earlier we spoke with a doctor you know from a columbia university in new york who believes it's vital that arab powers are involved in the intervention. 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 mama qaddafi has portrayed in all this operation that it's basically a crusade it's colonialism coming back to libya and he would start using it to garner more support for his own tactics to fight this this military intervention 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 interesting in live with each other he has already moved in many cities his

his he he almost got close to benghazi i think it's very it's getting more and more complicated out i'm skeptical now maybe this will end up becoming a protracted conflict which will if this case will play right into his hands and he will become a hero that is fighting against colonialism at the first resolution one nine hundred seventy which decided to refer to case to the i.c.c. has basically got to wait for an 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 transitional council does not accept any negotiation now because basically what they want with the most people live in people wants that this regime has to change he has to go with his family and the people that have been supporting him but i

don't think there's any time for that for diplomacy it's psychic it's never too late british opposition m.p. jeremy corbyn says it's innocent civilians who will bear the brunt of this warfare . i think the tactic yes he was to call a ceasefire in order to hope for 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 absolutely regret the lack of the cease fire and regret what is happening at the moment a lot of innocent people have already tried a lot more look as though they're going to die in the next few hours if they strike against. targets of the regime then they might be effective at doing that but i suspect the real problem is they're going to have to strike against targets in the cities and that will result in large numbers of casualties this is a terrible situation an awful lot of innocent people died because of the situation i think there's a lot of double standards going on here because what is happening in libya is

obviously terrible. should have heeded the views of ordinary people and come to some kind of accommodation with them all removed himself from office. there's been no condemnation worthy of anything against rain saudi arabia yemen or a martin who've also been killing large numbers of civilians totally over the last few weeks and i think that the west has been very selective about this was the u.n. has put in place a resolution calling for a no fly zone and that is obviously they have not used the words regime change well that's 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 keep putting ground forces in 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 the same thing could happen there 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 and at the same time only six weeks ago. britain was selling arms to libya buying oil from libya british companies were investing in libya money libya was interesting heavily in this country and so it's in a very short space of time that libya has gone from most favored nation to zero and one does the speed of all this and many of those that are now calling for probably going to libya were only a few weeks ago in libya doing business deals course there's a lot of information for us to digest with this developing story so let's have a recap multinational force has 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 french fighter jets destroyed several armored vehicles and

tanks belonging to colonel gadhafi is for the u.s. claims that libya's air defenses have been severely disabled libyan state t.v. claims forty eight people have been killed and more than one hundred fifty injured the majority of which they claim are civilian 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 the. now the russian foreign ministry says the international intervention in libya is regrettable and it's called on all sides to do what they can to stop the suffering of peaceful civilians and to put it in place in immediate cease fire or at least reports. very much. spilling out the military intervention but of course still a possibility when you claim reality as it is now is. to raise.

the developments out of their libya. calling for an immediate cease fire. representatives to sit down and try to find a political solution to the. libya story that. tensions increase the number of civilian casualties this military intervention. led by such as france the united states elite are saying that venting for their son jett the chairman of . the house of parliament so spoken about this ongoing intervention would be a sign that. says right there comes a not a simple thing right here actually of 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 so in that respect with think that

nine hundred seventy three resolution is mostly kill many tarion resolution of this as of this week for humanitarian resolution then a full militarisation my personal concern is that any military operation the wage is conducted by the west in the arab world can lead to very predictable scenarios like all the parties involved in the conflict and they get together and start fighting against a foreign invader as there were several examples of such scenarios in 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 to conduct regime has already lost its internal and international credibility but we think also that people of libya should sell solve their problems themselves. mcgillis they're forcing the concern and opinion

of many here in russia that shows and analysts experts like this current military intervention force at least an increase in civilian casualties but also the stammer lies the situation not only in libya but also in the region as a whole are g.'s company as are reporting from moscow now with concerns that a no fly zone over libya could be a cover up for for a full scale engagement anti-war activist jim brown says the u.n. resolution is full of holes. you can interpret so many things and then i mean what on earth you mean by protecting civilians presumably it means protecting civilians from both sides because there are clear suggestions of choices on both sides and certainly not a one sided thing but of course i think the central point is that the whole thrust

of the intervention is not and seems to me is not a principled thing and that accounts for the for the contradictions and the holes in the resolution i think the whole thing is a mess so the resolution itself is full of holes because i think you have to question the whole process and once you start on the process then the parent may contradictory when you end up with more and more pitfalls on the way you have this thing. for example stay very largely out of it and then suddenly when the resolution is passed yesterday it makes very specific demands which clearly were not in the resolution that demands that for example the government forces pull back from a series of towns that kind of thing so you have you have clear intention to of different parties to make of it what they will and i think that we'll see the process roll on what you have is a very similar situation going on in in in part ways in many ways exactly the

opposite features are in bahrain for example robert gates united states defense secretary goes to the train we can go towards leaves in two days later the. corporation council especially saudi forces go in and they go in and they in to lean on the side of those who are so personal are about broad based sympathetic to the whole revolt in the in the region in general. we. i mean for example we want to put it that way to stop the war in mark ryan but they're stopping the war in iraq or. in my face i mean to me on the side of the government whereas in the case of libya they want to stop the war buying to mean on the side of the rebels i mean the whole the whole position seems to me completely untenable. and full of holes. keith harman snow a war correspondent and former u.n. investigator says the coalition is defending

a rebel forces which promotes western interests president sarkozy from france today the libyan people must be able to choose their own destiny and they have to these attacks. hundred ten tomahawk missiles in the free flights air flights the air attacks they we can return to diplomatic activity there was no good plan diplomatic activity this is an absolute of aggression it's just another war and if the world should really be frightened about the nature of nato and american power and attacking their own dictators there's a popular uprising components of the uprising where the rebels attacked libya but there's also genuine genuine dissonance but there's also islamic radical proxy forces there were backed by the united states during the cold during the cold war and there is cia backed forces the fronts of the national so initially yes these are also part of the so-called rebels and they're backed by other western agencies like the national endowment for democracy works and personally there so this is

really a very manipulated so-called conflict where people of the real true free popular uprising people of libya are going to suffer the most and it won't be very long once they get going you can do nothing for the people who truly popular uprising in the allies and they have no control over the country because the united states and france and italy and britain have been again anti-war activist dr jens of wagner says the conflict is not about saving lives at all but rather gaining and oil advantage. of i think behind this operation there's already. a lot of. it's probably too late that i'm sure a large intervention will cover the oil fields or that will get access to all strategic points i think the goal is anything but humanitarian. it's

a standoff situation maybe and they have to divide the country and probably the allied forces and united states england great britain and france are you negotiating with. a new government in the eastern part of libya but. also then a great chance of a long civil war situation. dialogue is certainly the way forward and i think the russians. are right to to to back up and to soon what's what's unfolding now what's unfolding now appears to be. a larger scale military operation as we've seen in recent wars let's take a quick recap of the actions in libya which is of course our main story this hour. for the. over one hundred cruise missiles have been launched from an american and british navy ships the submarines excuse me and submarines in

the mediterranean hitting twenty sides in libya colonel gadhafi has said in a brief statement libyans will confront what he called the attacks. 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. that one of its fighters had been shot down 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 but also called for an end to the bloodshed and urged all sides involved in libya to start talking. and i'll be back with a recap of our top stories in just a few minutes stay with us for the latest.

of it whatever. the.