Air strikes silence Gaddafi guns in Libya’s Misrata

Western warplanes silenced Muammar Gaddafi's artillery and tanks besieging the rebel-held town of Misrata on Wednesday after an American admiral warned that the Libyan leader's armor was now in the cross-hairs.

Breathing defiance, Gaddafi earlier said Western powers carrying out air strikes on Libya were "a bunch of fascists who will end up in the dustbin of history".

The Western powers enforcing the U.N. resolution to protect Libyan civilians are struggling to agree on a coherent command structure including NATO after Washington said it wanted to hand over leadership of the campaign in the coming days.

While four nights of Western airstrikes hit Libyan air defenses and an armored column in the east, Gaddafi's tanks had kept up their shelling of Misrata in the west, killing dozens of people this week. Residents said a "massacre" was taking place with doctors treating the wounded in hospital corridors. Government snipers killed 16 people on Wednesday, rebels said.

At least two explosions were heard in the Libyan capital Tripoli before dawn on Wednesday and Gaddafi looked set to dig in for the long haul.

"We will not surrender," Gaddafi told supporters forming a human shield to protect him at his Tripoli compound, which came under attack in 1986 from the U.S. Reagan administration and once again in the current round of air raids.

Despite Gaddafi's boasts, there were reports the Libyan leader may be looking for a way out of the conflict.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told ABC News that people close to Gaddafi have been contacting Libya's allies worldwide to see how they can "get out of this."

"We've heard about ... people close to him reaching out to people that they know around the world -- Africa, the Middle East, Europe, North America, beyond -- saying what do we do? How do we get out of this?" she said.

No civilian deaths

Hueber, chief of staff to the U.S. commander of the Libya mission, Admiral Samuel Locklear, said there was still no indication that coalition air strikes had led to any Libyan civilian deaths.

"Gaddafi forces must pull out from Misrata, Ajdabiya and Zawiyah," he told journalists,

Speaking via phone from the command ship in the Mediterranean, the USS Mount Whitney, Hueber said Gaddafi’s forces had been seen making incursions into certain cities armed with tanks, artillery and rocket launchers.

British Air Vice Marshal Greg Bagwell said on Wednesday at a base in Italy that Western forces had destroyed Libya's air force and were flying with impunity across its air space, attacking ground troops wherever they threatened civilians.

The siege of Misrata, now weeks old, had become increasingly desperate, with water cut off for days and food running out, doctors operating on patients in hospital corridors and many of the wounded left untreated or simply turned away.

The Libyan government denies its army is conducting any offensive operations and says troops are only defending themselves when they come under attack.

Gaddafi forces resumed their bombardment of Zintan, another rebel-held town in west Libya, residents said, and tanks were expected there.

Disorganized

In the east of this oil-producing north African desert state, disorganized and badly equipped rebels fighting to end Gaddafi's 41-year rule have failed to capitalize on foreign air strikes and have been pinned down outside Ajdabiyah, 150 km (90 miles) west of Benghazi.

Rebels were clashing with the army inside Ajdabiyah, rebel fighters said on Wednesday, and residents were fleeing.

Fighters said some groups had made covert forays into the town through the desert but that tanks at the town entrance had kept their main force at bay.

As the rebels sought to organize their command structure on the battlefield, the rebel political leadership named Mahmoud Jabril to head an interim government and pick ministers.

Jabril, a reformer who was once involved in a project to establish a democratic state in Libya, is already the head of a crisis committee to cover military and foreign affairs.

Council members were in Paris on Wednesday, and gave assurances a secular democracy would respect all oil contracts.

NATO to coordinate

Six NATO warships backed up by aircraft began Wednesday to patrol international waters off Libya's coast to enforce a U.N. arms embargo against Gaddafi’s regime, the alliance said.

"NATO warships and aircraft have started patrolling the approaches to Libya's coast as part of Operation Unified Protector," NATO said on its website.

"The ships will remain in international waters and will not enter Libyan territorial waters," NATO said.

The United States, with its forces already tied up in Iraq and Afghanistan, has said it wants to take a back seat.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said NATO would take on a coordination role in the Libya intervention and a contact group would be formed, made up of representatives of coalition countries, African Union, Arab League and EU countries, which will be in charge of strategic planning.

The United States, Britain and France agreed on Tuesday that the alliance should play a key operational role, but the assent of all 28 NATO states is needed and they have been split over whether it should also exercise political control.

NATO warships and aircraft have started patrolling the approaches to Libya's coast as part of Operation Unified Protector

NATO

Larger Arab role

The U.S. and its European allies held out hope for more direct Arab participation in the military action in Libya despite signs that such support is wavering or slow in coming.

Obama administration officials have said that pledges of Arab political leadership and active participation in a no-fly zone in a fellow Arab country were crucial to the US decision to go ahead with military action in Libya.

Following the unpopular wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in the last decade, U.S. officials had balked at launching a U.S. military campaign in a third Muslim country that risked further fueling anti-American sentiment.

However, since the United States, Britain and France launched air strikes against targets in Libya on Saturday, Qatar is the only Arab country to have contributed warplanes to the UN-backed mission.

The 22-member Arab League endorsed the no-fly zone.

But a day after the military action began, Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa had courted controversy by speaking out against the air and missile strikes against Libya, saying they exceed the bounds set by U.N. Resolution 1973.

A senior U.S. administration official said Arab support remained strong.

"With regard to Arab participation, this just takes time and it's a complicated process to reach these kinds of decisions," the official said on the condition of anonymity.

"But we're confident that you're going to see more Arab participation than you have seen already, and I think you're going to see that over the course of the next two or three days," the official said.

The United Arab Emirates said on Monday that its involvement in Libya is limited to humanitarian assistance, after reports that it would send warplanes to patrol the no-fly zone.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said Wednesday that Kuwait and Jordan will give "logistic contributions" to the international coalition action against the Libyan regime.