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French and British warplanes could start air raids on Libya as early as Friday, a day after the U.N. Security Council authorized military force, officials said.
French officials said strategic bombing attacks could take place within hours of the resolution's passage. British officials expressed greater caution and declined to put a timetable on how quickly any attacks would begin.
When asked whether Paris wanted military intervention to follow immediately after the U.N. Security Council authorized "all necessary measures" to protect Libyan civilians, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said, "Of course."
By contrast, British Prime Minister David Cameron and several ministers planned a Friday Cabinet meeting on Britain's options, followed by a statement by Cameron to the House of Commons, his office said.
The U.N. action, pushed aggressively by France and Britain, came as Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's security forces said they recaptured Misurata, the last major western rebel foothold, and bombed opposition capital Benghazi, the de facto capital of rebels trying to end Gadhafi's 42-year rule.
The report of the recapture, which could not be independently confirmed, followed Gadhafi forces' retaking of Zawiyah, another western town that had been held by the rebels.
The second day of air force bombings of the port city of Benghazi brought Gadhafi's forces as close to the rebels' stronghold as they had been since the uprising began Feb. 14, The Wall Street Journal reported.
At the United Nations, European and U.S. officials argued an international campaign to stop Gadhafi's forces was needed immediately to stave off a potential massacre of opposition forces and civilians.
Around the time they were speaking, Gadhafi, during a radio call-in show, warned rebels: "We will come, house by house, room by room. It's over. The issue has been decided."
He offered amnesty to those who laid down their arms, but to those who continued to resist, he vowed: "We will find you in your closets. We will have no mercy and no pity."
The Security Council vote passed 10-0, with Russia, China, Germany, Brazil and India abstaining.
After the vote, U.S. President Barack Obama met with senior national security advisers and Cabinet officials on the White House National Security Council to discuss possible options. He also spoke by phone with Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the White House said.
NATO ambassadors were to meet Friday morning to decide on NATO involvement, officials said. The intergovernmental military alliance could take action but Germany's U.N. abstention and a possible objection from Turkey could be obstacles, the Journal reported.
One of the options being discussed is the use of manned and unmanned aircraft against Gadhafi's tanks, personnel carriers and infantry positions, with sorties being flown out of U.S. and NATO bases in the southern Mediterranean, the Journal reported.
Washington -- whose options included providing airborne early warning and control, or Awacs, radar planes, as well as signal-jamming aircraft and some 400 U.S. Marines aboard two amphibious assault ships -- said it had no plans to insert U.S. ground forces into Libya.
The United States, Britain and France insisted military actions not be led by NATO to avoid the appearance of the West attacking a Muslim country, The New York Times reported. They also were also adamant members of the League of Arab States, which called on the United Nations Saturday to impose a no-fly zone, take part in the military actions and help pay for the operations, the Times said.
Arab League member Egypt already began shipping arms over the border to Libyan rebels with Washington's knowledge, U.S. and Libyan rebel officials told the Journal.
The shipments -- mostly small arms such as assault rifles, multiple barrel firearms, light machine guns, hand grenades and ammunition -- were the first confirmed case of an outside government arming the rebel fighters.
Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Khalid Kaim early Friday warned foreign countries against arming the rebels.
"That means they are inviting Libyans to kill each other," he said at a news conference in Tripoli after the U.N. vote.
UPI
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