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      WASHINGTON (AP) - A U.S.-led coalition has succeeded in
scattering and isolating Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi's forces
after a weekend of punishing air attacks, Pentagon officials say,
and American military authorities are moving to hand control of the
operation to other countries.


      Gadhafi is not a target of the campaign, a senior military
official said Sunday, but he could not guarantee the Libyan
leader's safety.


      Navy Vice Adm. William E. Gortney, staff director for the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, told a Pentagon news conference there is no
evidence civilians in Libya have been harmed in the air assault,
code named Odyssey Dawn. Gortney also said no allied planes have
been lost and all pilots have returned safely from missions that
used stealth B-2 bombers, jet fighters, more than 120 Tomahawk
cruise missiles and other high-tech weapons.


      "We judge these strikes to have been very effective in
significantly degrading the regime's air defense capability,"
Gortney said. "We believe his forces are under significant stress
and suffering from both isolation and a good deal of confusion."


      But Gortney did not rule out the possibility of further attacks
aimed at preventing Gadhafi from attacking civilians in Libya and
enforcing a no-fly zone.


      Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the U.S. expects to turn
control of the mission over to a coalition - probably headed either
by the French and British or by NATO - "in a matter of days."


      Late Sunday, however, NATO's top decision-making body failed to
agree on a plan to enforce the no-fly zone over Libya, although it
did approve a military plan to implement a U.N. arms embargo.


      On Saturday night, three Air Force B-2s, launched from Whiteman
Air Force Base in Missouri, dropped precision munitions on an
airfield near the city of Misurata, destroying hardened military
aircraft shelters while avoiding commercial structures nearby. A
military official said the B-2s flew 25 hours in a round trip from
Whiteman and dropped 45 2,000-pound bombs.


      And fifteen Air Force and Marine Corps aircraft, along with jets
from France and Great Britain, hit a heavy infantry unit advancing
on the rebel capital Benghazi. "To protect the Libyan people, we
took them under attack," Gortney said.


      Gortney said the coalition had control of the air space between
Benghazi and Tripoli, Libya's capital. "The no-fly zone is
effectively in place," he said. "Anything that does fly that we
detect, we will engage."


      Inside Gadhafi's huge Tripoli compound, an administration
building was hit and badly damaged late Sunday. An Associated Press
photographer at the scene said half of the round, three-story
building was knocked down, smoke was rising from it, and pieces of
a cruise missile were scattered around the scene.


      Gadhafi and his residence are not on a list of targets to be hit
by coalition aircraft, Gortney said. But Gadhafi won't be safe "if
he happens to be at a place, if he is inspecting a surface-to-air
missile site and we don't have any idea that he's there or not,"
Gortney said.


      Earlier Sunday, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff, said the goals of the operation are to protect civilians
from further violence by pro-Gadhafi forces, while enabling the
flow of humanitarian relief supplies. But it was unclear how long
the military effort would continue or on what scale.


      That uncertainty led to criticism from senior Republicans in
Congress.


      House Speaker John Boehner said that the Obama administration
"has a responsibility to define for the American people, the
Congress and our troops what the mission in Libya is" and how it
will be accomplished.


      Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, the Republican chairman of the
House Armed Services Committee, said Obama needs to tell the
American public "to what extent military force will be used and
for how long."


      Army Gen. Carter Ham, the top officer at U.S. Africa Command, is
in control of the operation. But the U.S., which is heavily engaged
in Afghanistan and still has troops in Iraq, is working to transfer
command to another member of the coalition. Gortney did not provide
details on when that would happen or which country would take the
lead.


      The U.S. role would shift to mostly providing support with
aerial refueling tankers and electronic warfare aircraft that can
jam or monitor enemy communications - assets that other countries
don't have in their inventories.


      Gen. Norton Schwartz, the Air Force chief of staff, told
lawmakers last week that intelligence-gathering and surveillance
aircraft being used in Iraq and Afghanistan may be shifted to
Libya. These aircraft are limited in number, Schwartz said, and
"trade-offs" may have to be made.


      Schwartz said he expected the supersonic F-22 Raptor - a jet
fighter yet to be used in combat - to play a prominent role in the
initial attacks on Gadhafi's forces. With its stealth design, the
F-22 can evade radar and has advanced engines that allow it to fly
at faster-than-sound speeds without using gas-guzzling
afterburners.


      But Gortney would not say whether the F-22 had been or will be
used. The Air Force has said only that the B-2 and F-15 and F-16
fighters participated in the operation.


      As of Sunday, Gortney said members of the coalition included the
U.S., Great Britain, France, Canada, Italy, Belgium and Qatar. More
are expected to join, but Gortney said those countries, and not the
U.S., would make that announcement.

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

Gallery

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First wave of allied assault: 112 cruise missiles

Unrest

A U.S.-led coalition has succeeded in
scattering and isolating Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi's forces
after a weekend of punishing air attacks, Pentagon officials say,
and American military authorities are moving to hand control of the
operation to other countries.

Pentagon: Gadhafi forces in disarray after assault

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