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Libyan crisis: Latest developments, March 25

March 25, 2011 / 5:04 PM EDT / CBS/AP

Images from black and white video show a group of Libyan T-72 Main Battle Tanks as they are targeted, and then destroyed, by British and allied forces from the air, as the tanks threaten the disputed town of Ajdabiya, Libya, March 24, 2011. AP Photo/British MOD

Latest developments from March 25

Last updated at 4:47 p.m. ET

(Al Arabiya) President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Friday that France and the U.K. were preparing a "political and diplomatic" solution to the Libya crisis. Referring to talks in London next Tuesday, Sarkozy said, "There will certainly be a Franco-British initiative to clearly show the solution is not only military but also political and diplomatic."
(AP) NATO has named Canadian Gen. Charles Bouchard to lead a unified command of its Libyan operation. Bouchard will be in charge of both the air campaign and the naval task force implementing an arms embargo, a NATO official said.

(CBS News) At a State Department briefing in Washington today, America's ambassador to Libya said that the U.S. government has not broken relations with the Qaddafi regime.
But Ambassador Gene Cretz also said the U.S. has named a special envoy who will travel to Benghazi, to step up discussions with the Libyan opposition - some of whose members, he said, have previous dealings with his embassy's staff.

"Without getting into the issue of whether recognition [of a transitional government] is a critical factor now or not, I think we've taken some steps that indicate our support for the opposition," Cretz said.

"We're not Pollyannaish about saying that we know everything about who we're dealing with, but I can say that based on the experience that we've had so far, they are off to a good start in word and deed, and do not seem to be - at least in the statements and the actions that they've taken - in any way incompatible with the kind of ideals that we would be advocating in that situation," he said.
(CBS News) Libyan television reports that Muammar Qaddafi has decided to promote all members of his armed forces "for their bravery in combating the foreign aggression."
(AP) Libyan state television showed blackened and mangled bodies that it said were victims of allied airstrikes in Tripoli. But a U.S. intelligence report bolsters claims by rebels that the Qaddafi regime is staging supposed collateral damage, by taking bodies from the morgue and pretending they were civilian casualties of airstrikes. The report said a senior Qaddafi aide was told to take bodies from a morgue and place them at the scene of bomb damage, to be displayed for visiting journalists.
(AP) At an African Union meeting in Addis Abbaba today, Libyan official Abdul-Ati al-Obeid said his government was ready to negotiate with the rebels and accept political reform, possibly including elections. Rebels (who did not have a delegation in attendance) have said they will not negotiate with Qaddafi.

Protesters take part in an anti-war demonstration in front of the White House in Washington, D.C., March 25, 2011. Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images

(AP) Qatar has flown its first sortie in support of the coalition enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya.
The U.S. military said in a statement that a Qatar Air Force Mirage 2000-5 flew alongside a French Mirage 2000-5 fighter jet in a patrol Friday over Libyan airspace.

Qatar has deployed six Mirage fighters and two C-17 transport jets to the operation.
(The Guardian) The head of France's armed forces, Admiral Edouard Guillaud, told France Info radio that the no-fly operation could drag on for weeks.
"I doubt that it will be days," he said, as reported by the Guardian. "I think it will be weeks. I hope it will not take months."
(CBS News) At a briefing by the U.K. Defense minister, it was reported that Qaddafi's forces control 600 miles of Libyan coastline - slightly more than half. Defense Secretary Liam Fox also said that last night British Tornado GR4 aircraft took part in a coordinated missile strike against armored vehicles of Colonel Gaddafi's military that he said were threatening the civilian population of Ajdabiya.
The BBC reports that U.K. and allied attacks destroyed seven Gaddafi tanks on Thursday.
(CBS News) In the latest issue of The New Yorker, Andrew Solomon writes of the imperative of removing Muammar Qaddafi from power:
"Having long backed terrible dictators in the Arab world because they sell us oil, the U.S. needs to show that we will support the will of the people, because our support of those dictators has caused so many Arabs to hate us. It makes our high-minded rhetoric about democracy look as absurd as Qaddafi's. ... If we don't drum Qaddafi from power, we allow Al Qaeda's depiction of the United States as wealthy, self-interested, and corrupt to ring scarily true. If we allow Qaddafi to remain in power, we will embolden other dictators. ...

"Will accomplishing Qaddafi's removal at this stage result in a quickly established democracy on the model of, say, Sweden? No. Chaos looms; the rebellion is coherently against something, and not coherently for anything. Even so, its first objective, removing the man, is a valid objective for them and for us."
(CBS News) In a radio interview with morning with CBS News correspondent Dan Raviv, Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said, "Just as the no-fly zone command is shifting to NATO, after NATO develops a military plan to take on the civilian protection mission, we fully expect that the transition and command will go from General Ham to a ... NATO commander who is not an American."
(France 24) Excellent 10-minute video from the front lines, as France 24 news crew rides with Libyan rebels from Brega to Ras Lanuf and Ben Jawad. The report shows the ragtag nature of the anti-Qaddafi forces; their penchant for bravado; their unfamiliarity with weaponry; and the fact that, in the desert, there is nowhere to hide from enemy fire.
(BBC News) Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan reportedly said that France will be sidelined on Libya once NATO takes full control of the operation, and that this will be a "positive" development.
(Reuters) Local media is reporting a Ugandan cabinet minister has told Parliament the country will freeze Libyan assets worth about $375 million, in keeping with a U.N. resolution imposing sanctions on Tripoli.
(AP) African Union commission chairman Jean Ping said the AU favors a transitional period leading to democratic elections. Ping stressed the inevitability of political reforms in Libya, and called the aspirations of the Libyan people "legitimate."
(CBS News) The former spokesman for the U.S. State Department has tweeted that he expects Muammar Qaddafi to leave power. A Twitter message signed by P.J. Crowley reads: "If we are patient, the pressure of the military campaign and economic sanctions will be sufficient to force #Qaddafi's exit at modest cost."

A 31st Fighter Wing U.S. Air Force F-16 jet fighter takes off at the Aviano NATO airbase, in Aviano, Italy, March 25, 2011. AP Photo/Luca Bruno

(CBS/AP) NATO agreed to take over command of the newly established no-fly zone over Libya, but the alliance's new role doesn't allow the U.S. to make a quick exit from the costly military operation as the Obama administration had wanted.
American sea and airpower remain key parts of the effort to counter forces loyal to Libyan strongman Muammar Qaddafi after allies balked at assuming complete command of the campaign that began six days ago. The U.S., along with France and Great Britain, maintains primary responsibility for attacks on Qaddafi's ground forces and air defense systems, which are the toughest and most controversial parts of the operation.
(Reuters) The coalition enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya fired 16 Tomahawk cruise missiles and flew 153 air sorties in the past 24 hours targeting Muammar Qaddafi's artillery, mechanized forces and command and control infrastructure, a U.S. military spokeswoman said on Friday.
(CBS) The Al-Arabiya network reports fierce clashes between rebels and pro-Qaddafi forces at the eastern entrance of the city of Adjdabiya Friday morning eastern time.
(CBS) Rebels claim to have retaken the city center of Misurata, eastern Tripoli after they killed 30 snipers who had been positioned on rooftops; rebels blow up staircases in buildings where they couldn't reach snipers; rebels say Qaddafi's forces pushed back to the outskirts of the city are getting backup, likely to launch more attacks today. The port of Misurata remains under rebels' control.

A Libyan rebel guards a street in Benghazi, March 25, 2011. Patrick Baz/AFP/Getty Images

(CBS) Coalition planes continue to strike Qaddafi's positions in Tripoli for the sixth consecutive day.
(AP) Representatives of the Qaddafi regime met with the African Union on Friday, in Ethiopia, in what the U.N. described as a part of an effort to reach a cease-fire and political solution. Although the U.N. secretary-general said an opposition representative would attend, Mustafa Gheriani, an opposition spokesman, said Friday he knew nothing about it.
"The position of the national council has been clear from the beginning - no negotiations," Gheriani said. "All [Qaddafi] has to do is stop bombing and leave the country."
(NY Times) Allies are split on the goals and exit strategy in Libya, reports the New York Times. Some NATO members are balking at the insistence by the U.S. and France that Qaddafi must be overthrown.

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