Mullen denied that the attack was aimed at the assassination of Gaddafi and his family. But within a few hours of his television interviews, journalists in Tripoli reported huge explosions near Gaddafi's family compound in the Libyan capital city. Anti-aircraft batteries opened up throughout the city, responding to a new and more widespread aerial attack.
While the Obama administration has been at pains to declare the assault on Libya the common venture of a "broad coalition," seeking to distinguish it from the Bush administration's unilateral decision to go to war in Iraq, there is no question that American imperialism is playing the leading and decisive role.
An American commander, General Carter Ham, head of the Pentagon's African Command (AFRICOM), is in charge of all allied operations against Libya, giving directives to French and British warplanes, British submarines, and Italian naval vessels, as well as an array of US warships, submarines and bombers.
And despite the claims by Obama of "no boots on the ground," there is little doubt that American, British and other special forces operatives and intelligence agents are already in action inside Libya, helping direct fire at critical targets, particularly the Libyan political leadership and the field commanders of the Libyan army.
Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi vowed resistance, making an appearance on national television Sunday morning and calling the US-European attack "simply a colonial crusader aggression that may ignite another large-scale crusader war." Libyan state television reported that a hospital in Tripoli had been hit in the bombardment, with 48 dead and over a hundred wounded.
Gaddafi meanwhile continued to plead with the imperialist powers to resume the alliance he forged with them in 2004, when he shut down his nuclear research program, turned over his nuclear assets to the United States, and agreed to pay compensation to the victims of the 1988 airliner bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland.
He reiterated his declaration that the Libyan rebels consist exclusively of Al Qaeda supporters, sending a letter to Obama that addressed the US president as his "son" and offered his collaboration in the US struggle against terrorism.
At the same time, Libyan Oil Minister Shukri Ghanem announced that the country's oil resources were still open to Western exploitation and urged the big oil companies to send their technicians and administrative personnel back to the country. He said that despite the open warfare, Libya would honor all its obligations to foreign companies, including its most recent $900 million contract with BP.
The ferocity of the initial air attacks on Libya has produced widespread shock and anger throughout North Africa and the Middle East. Officials of the Arab League, who last week acceded to French, British and American pressure and issued a call for a no-fly zone in Libya, said Sunday they were reconsidering their support.
Five Arab countries -- Morocco, Iraq, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates -- sent representatives to the meeting Saturday in Paris that ratified the use of military force. Only Qatar agreed to participate directly.
The African Union, which groups 53 countries on the continent, including Libya, Egypt and Tunisia, issued a public condemnation of the war at a meeting of its panel on Libya in Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania. Three members of the African Union -- South Africa, Nigeria and Gabon -- voted for the UN Security Council resolution Thursday that gave the green light for the attack.
There are serious divisions within the imperialist camp as well -- demonstrated by the abstention of Germany in the UN Security Council vote, along with Russia, China, Brazil and India.
Despite their common military engagement, there are significant tensions between the United States, France and Britain, each of which seeks to insure a major role in a post-Gaddafi Libya and in North Africa as a whole.
The Obama administration only finally made up its mind to push for military action at a late-night meeting Tuesday, March 15, according to several media reports. The Wall Street Journal wrote: "A lot of factors drove the shift, they say, including the administration's concern about being out of step with the changes sweeping the Arab world and of being outmaneuvered by the U.K. and especially France""
What lies behind the war against Libya is not the common front of "civilization" against "barbarism," as Obama administration spokesmen claim, but the struggle of rival imperialist powers to dominate one of the world's major sources of oil and gain control of a key strategic location and base of operations against the mass movements erupting throughout North Africa and the Middle East.
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