Topic: War and Peace News - on March 30, 2011 at 10:28:00 PM CEST
Journalists detained in Bahrain, Egypt
A CNN crew was detained today in Manama while interviewing a prominent Bahraini human rights defender, according to a Twitter posting by the network and a CPJ interview. The detentions come amid a recent series of repressive actions by the Bahraini government, which included today's arrest of a well-known blogger. Anti-press actions were also reported in Egypt, Syria, and Libya, CPJ research shows.
CNN tweeted this evening from Bahrain that a crew had been detained at the home of Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. Rajab told CPJ that the crew included CNN journalists Scott Bronstein and Taryn Fixel, along with an unidentified cameraman. He said a fourth journalist, an unidentified documentary filmmaker, was also detained.
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Topic: War and Peace News - on March 30, 2011 at 10:25:00 PM CEST
Obama authorizes secret support for Libya rebels
President Barack Obama has signed a secret order authorizing covert U.S. government support for rebel forces seeking to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, government officials told Reuters on Wednesday.
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Topic: War and Peace News - on March 30, 2011 at 10:23:00 PM CEST
BBC's Orla Guerin on the frontlines in Libya
Rebels in Libya are retreating from their former strongholds along the eastern coast as they come under fire from Col Muammar Gaddafi's forces.
The rebels have now lost the key oil port of Ras Lanuf and the nearby town of Bin Jawad, and are also in full retreat from Brega.
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Topic: War and Peace News - on March 30, 2011 at 10:19:00 PM CEST
The International Institute For Strategic Studies published 'Allied assets deployed to Libya'
Operation Odyssey Dawn/Ellamy/Harmattan/Mobile - Allied assets deployed to Libya
As military operations conducted to enforce United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 continue, keeping track of what assets are being used where and by whom becomes increasingly difficult.
In order to ensure informed debate on this particular conflict, the Defence and Military Analysis Programme of the IISS has compiled the following list of those air and naval assets known or believed to have been either used or made available for use in operations to date.
As with all military operations, reliable intelligence is difficult to secure. Given the current fluidity of the conflict, the information is also transitory. As such, the list below is accurate to the best of the IISS’ ability as of 30 March 2011.
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Topic: War and Peace News - on March 30, 2011 at 10:13:00 PM CEST
Marines Deploy to Libya
More than 2,000 Marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, 2nd Marine Expeditionary force, deployed along with Amphibious Squadron 6 for Libya Tuesday.
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Topic: War and Peace News - on March 30, 2011 at 10:08:00 PM CEST
The Marines Are Using Weather Balloons to Communicate With Fighters Out of Radio Range
What do you do when your fighter jets are out of radio range in enemy territory? Normally, you'd use AWACS airplanes to relay communications back and forth. But, in the Libyan war, the Marines are using a new method: Weather balloons.
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Topic: War and Peace News - on March 30, 2011 at 10:06:00 PM CEST
Operation Unified Protector (was Odyssey Dawn) explained (Day 11)
Let me start Day 11 Debrief with a provocation: is the partial retreat of the rebel fighters, who found the fierce opposition of the pro-Gaddafi forces on their westward advance, a consequence of a more cautious use of the force caused by the change of command? Obviously, my guess is far-fetched and my aim is only to stimulate debate but I think that when NATO will finally take over the full control of the war (arms embargo, No-Fly Zone, ground attacks to protect civilians), an accurate selection of targets in order to keep Unified Protector within the mandate of the UN resolution could somehow slow down the oppositors who, in the last days, had obtained important gains also because of the intervention (someone said “cover”) of the coalition aircraft.
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Topic: War and Peace News - on March 30, 2011 at 10:04:00 PM CEST
Pro-Qaddafi Forces Push Rebels Into Chaotic Retreat
Forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi advanced rapidly on Wednesday, seizing towns they ceded just days ago after intense allied airstrikes and hounding rebel fighters into a chaotic retreat.
Having abandoned Bin Jawwad on Tuesday and the oil town of Ras Lanuf on Wednesday, the rebels continued their eastward retreat, fleeing before the loyalists’ shelling and missile attacks from another oil town, Brega, and falling back toward the strategically located city of Ajdabiya. On Wednesday afternoon, residents of Ajdabiya were seen fleeing along the road north to Benghazi, the rebel capital and stronghold that Colonel Qaddafi’s forces reached before the allied air campaign got underway nearly two weeks ago.
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Topic: War and Peace News - on March 30, 2011 at 7:06:00 PM CEST
Three Big Pigs: Middle Eastern revolts told Angry Birds style
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Topic: War and Peace News - on March 30, 2011 at 5:51:00 PM CEST
David Cameron has told MPs that Britain agrees with the US that coalition forces could legally supply arms to rebel forces under UN security resolution 1973
The resolution allows "all necessary measures" to be taken to protect civilians in Libya. The Guardian's Paul Harris reported that the key phrase which allows the supply of arms appears to lie in paragraph 4 of UN resolution 1973.
My colleague Paul Harris says he has just spoken to a Western diplomatic source in the United Nations who said that the key language that may be used to justify arming the Libyan rebels lies in Paragraph 4 of UN resolution 1973, which is the one that gave the go-ahead for intervention and a no-fly zone.
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Topic: War and Peace News - on March 30, 2011 at 5:34:00 PM CEST
REpost NATO will now take control of the Libya operation at 0600 GMT on Thursday
NATO is to delay its takeover of the Libya operation. – 24 hours later than first announced.
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Topic: War and Peace News - on March 30, 2011 at 5:14:00 PM CEST
BREAKING! Coalition air strikes on Gaddafi forces in western Ajdabyia. APF.
Moammar Gadhafi's ground forces recaptured a strategic oil town Wednesday as they made new inroads in beating back a rebel advance toward the capital Tripoli. Western powers kept up the pressure to force Gadhafi out with new airstrikes to weaken his military, hints that they may arm the opposition and intense negotiations behind the scenes to persuade Libya's leader of nearly 42 years to step down.
Airstrikes have neutralized Gadhafi's air force and pounded his army, but those ground forces remain far better armed, trained and organized than the opposition. Rebels have few weapons more powerful than rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns, and are no match for Gadhafi's tanks and longer-range heavy weapons.
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