Top bombing pulverises Gaddafi's ammo bunkers

THIS is what the Allied air campaign is doing to Colonel Gaddafi’s war machine.

Three hundred miles from the sea the bunker complex on the edge of the city of Sebha smoulders, the ground pockmarked by craters after it’s been plastered by missile strikes.

This is among the first intelligence imagery released by the MOD showing the effects of the co-ordinated naval and air attacks to enforce United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973.

The images show a complex (clearly visible on Google Earth at 27° 3'50.90"N, 14°27'15.18"E) of around 40 underground bunkers which were home to small arms and artillery ammunition.

Royal Navy blockade forces Gaddafi's gunboats off the ocean

THE naval blockade of Libya is keeping Colonel Gaddafi's gunboats holed up in port.

Whitehall says since frigates HMS Westminster and Cumberland began enforcing the United Nations Resolution with other Allied naval forces on Friday, the dictator's ships had shown “a very marked reluctance” to leave their bases.

Until the UN Resolution was enforced, Gaddafi’s ships had been used to bombard targets in rebel-held locations ashore.

Capt Karl Evans, former T-boat commander and operations officer on the Naval Staff, said: "We had seen Libyan surface ships used to shell shore positions. That's now stopped. Our ships and their capabilities may well be a factor in why that's stopped."