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By ROBERT BURNS, AP National Security Writer
      


WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. and British ships and submarines launched
the first phase of a missile assault on Libyan air defenses
Saturday and a senior American defense official said it was
believed substantial damage was inflicted.


      In the strikes, 112 Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired at more
than 20 coastal targets to clear the way for air patrols to ground
Libya's air force.


      While U.S. defense officials cautioned that it was too early to
fully gauge the impact of the onslaught, the official said that
given the precision targeting of the Navy's cruise missiles, they
felt that Libya's air defenses suffered a good deal of damage.


      Explosions continued to rock the coastal cities, including
Tripoli. Navy Vice Adm. Wiliam E. Gortney, director of the
Pentagon's Joint Staff, would not discuss future operations But
defense officials said military action was likely to continue.


      The official spoke on grounds of anonymity because the ongoing
mission.


      In announcing the mission during a visit to Brazil, President
Barack Obama said he was reluctant to resort to force but was
convinced it was necessary to save the lives of civilians. He
reiterated that he would not send American ground troops to Libya.


      "We cannot stand idly by when a tyrant tells his people there
will be no mercy," he said in Brasilia.


      While U.S. defense officials said it was too early to gauge the
impact of the onslaught, one senior official said that given the
precision targeting of the Navy's cruise missiles, they believe
Libya's air defenses suffered a good deal of damage.


      It was clear the U.S. intended to limit its role in the Libya
intervention, focusing first on disabling or otherwise silencing
Libyan air defenses, and then leaving it to European and perhaps
Arab countries to enforce a no-fly zone over the North African
nation.


      Gortney told reporters the cruise missile assault was the
"leading edge" of a coalition campaign dubbed Operation Odyssey
Dawn. Its aim: prevent Moammar Gadhafi's forces from inflicting
more violence on civilians -- particularly in and around the rebel
stronghold of Benghazi -- and degrading the Libyan military's
ability to contest a no-fly zone.


      "This is not an outcome the U.S. or any of our partners
sought," Obama said from Brazil, where he is starting a five-day
visit to Latin America. "Our consensus was strong, and our resolve
is clear. The people of Libya must be protected, and in the absence
of an immediate end to the violence against civilians our coalition
is prepared to act, and to act with urgency."


      A chief target of Saturday's cruise missile attack was Libya's
SA-5 surface-to-air missiles, which are considered a moderate
threat to some allied aircraft. Libya's overall air defenses are
based on older Soviet technology but Gortney called them capable
and a potential threat to allied aircraft.


      Also targeted: early warning radars and unspecified
communications facilities, Gortney said. The U.S. military has
extensive recent experience in such combat missions; U.S. Air Force
and Navy aircraft repeatedly attacked Iraq's air defenses during
the 1990s while enforcing a no-fly zone over Iraq's Kurdish north.

      Cruise missiles are the weapon of first choice in such
campaigns; they do not put pilots at risk, and they use
navigational technologies that provide good precision.


      The first Tomahawk cruise missiles struck at 3 p.m. EDT, Gortney
said, after a one-hour flight from the U.S. and British vessels on
station in the Mediterranean.


      They were fired from five U.S. ships - the guided-missile
destroyers USS Stout and USS Barry, and three submarines, USS
Providence, USS Scranton and USS Florida.


      The U.S. has at least 11 naval vessels in the Mediterranean,
including three submarines, two destroyers, two amphibious warfare
ships and the USS Mount Whitney, a command-and-control vessel that
is the flagship of the Navy's 6th Fleet. Also in the area are Navy
P-3 and EP-3 surveillance aircraft, officials said.


      Gortney initially had said that it could take as long as 12
hours to assess the effectiveness of Saturday's strikes. Then a
high-altitude Global Hawk unmanned surveillance plane would overfly
the target areas to get a more precise view, the admiral said. He
would not say how long the attacks on Libyan air defenses would
last, but he stressed that Saturday's assault with cruise missiles
was the first phase of a multi-stage mission.

      Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, in a statement late Saturday,
said, "I support the actions taken today by our allies, with the
support of several Arab countries, to prevent the tyrant Moammar
Qaddafi from perpetrating further atrocities on the people of
Libya."


      "And I support the president's decision to deploy U.S. assets
to help those allies to enforce a no-fly zone to protect Libyan
civilians as laid out in the United Nations resolution," the
Nevada Democrat said. "This U.S. military action was not taken
lightly, and it was done in concert with a broad international
coalition."


      Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who was scheduled to fly to
Russia on Saturday afternoon to begin a week-long overseas trip,
postponed his departure for 24 hours. Pentagon press secretary
Geoff Morrell said Gates decided he should remain in Washington to
monitor developments in Libya at the outset of U.S. strikes.


      Gates had been skeptical of getting involved in Libya's civil
war, telling Congress earlier this month that taking out Libya's
air defenses was tantamount to war. Others have worried that the
mission could put the U.S. on a slippery slope to deeper
involvement in yet another Muslim country - on top of the wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan.


      Hours after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton attended
an international conference in Paris that endorsed military action
against Gadhafi, the U.S. and Britain kicked off their attacks.


      At a news conference in Paris, Clinton said Gadhafi had left the
world no choice but to intervene urgently and forcefully to protect
further loss of civilian life.


      "We have every reason to fear that, left unchecked, Gadhafi
would commit unspeakable atrocities," she told reporters.


      Clinton said there was no evidence that Gadhafi's forces were
respecting an alleged cease-fire they proclaimed and the time for
action was now.


      "Our assessment is that the aggressive action by Gadhafi's
forces continues in many parts of the country," she said. "We
have seen no real effort on the part of the Gadhafi forces to abide
by a cease-fire."


      In addition to the three submarines and two destroyers, the U.S.
Navy ships in the Mediterranean include two amphibious warships,
the USS Kearsarge and USS Ponce, and a command-and-control ship,
the USS Mount Whitney.
      

      
      Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this
report.
      
      

Gallery

U.S. and British ships and submarines launched
the first phase of a missile assault on Libyan air defenses
Saturday and a senior American defense official said it was
believed substantial damage was inflicted.

First wave of allied assault: 112 cruise missiles

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