Well-deserved break from Libyan mission for Liverpool

THE guns of HMS Liverpool fire again.

But this time, not in anger.

After two months on-and-off patrolling the Gulf of Sirte, the destroyer took a break from operations for a spot of R&R – and ceremonial.

The visit to Grand Harbour coincided with the Queen’s official birthday – an event not only celebrated in the UK and RN, but also by islanders in this Commonwealth nation.

Liverpool's gun silences Gaddafi rocket battery

HMS Liverpool pummelled an enemy rocket battery after it opened fire on the destroyer off the besieged Libyan city of Misrata this morning.

The words ‘Four-five, engage’ were issued after a salvo of rockets was launched at Liverpool as she and Allied warships tried to stop Colonel Gaddafi’s forces mining the waters off the port.

The destroyer’s main 4.5in gun responded with a series of withering blows which silenced the pro-government battery.

It’s the first time the main guns of the Royal Navy have been fired in anger since they plastered Saddam Hussein’s defences in the opening moments of the 2003 Iraq campaign.

NATO forces clearing sea mines off Libyan coast

Several NATO vessels have been deployed off the Libyan coastal city of Misrata to clear naval mines that were dropped outside the harbour last week by forces loyal to Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi, in an attempt to cut off aid to the besieged the rebel-held city.

A French frigate on April 29 detected four small boats dropping three sea mines in the approach to Misrata, causing humanitarian shipping to be obstructed. Since then two of the mines have been cleared. The search for the exact location of the third mine that was observed is still under way.


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Brocklesby weighs in after 'very despicable act' by Gaddafi's forces

ROYAL Navy sailors have cleared mines from a war zone for the first time since Iraq as they prevented Col Gaddafi from holing up aid ships bound for the beleaguered city of Misrata.

HMS Brocklesby and other vessels in a NATO minehunting task force were searching the waters off the western Libyan port after enemy fast patrol boats were seen dropping what appeared to be a mine into the Gulf of Sirte.

The ships – NATO’s Standing Mine Counter Measures Group 1, part of the sizeable maritime force enforcing Operation Unified Protector – found two moored mines on the seabed intended to detonate on encountering passing ships in the approaches to Misrata harbour, plus evidence that a third had broken from its mooring and was floating free in the sea.

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Navy destroyer to bombard Mad Dog

BRITISH destroyer HMS Liverpool was last night preparing to shell targets in Libya and quicken the downfall of tyrant Colonel Gaddafi.

Defence chiefs have ordered the Type-42 Destroyer to start pounding command and control centres and boost the ill-equipped rebels.

Until now Britain has only used RAF Tornado and Typhoon warplanes and a nuclear submarine.

But sources close to the mission told The Sun a major Navy assault will begin this week. The source said: "Final details are being hammered out now but they are looking to strike over the next few days. When they do, Gaddafi won't know what's hit him."

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Liverpool intercepts suspect ship bound for Libya

TRUCKS for Colonel Gaddafi’s war machine were intercepted by HMS Liverpool as the ship helped draw a dragnet along the Libyan coast.

The Portsmouth-based destroyer intercepted the MV Setubal Express, bound for Tripoli from Malta, and sent her boarding team of Royal Marines and sailors aboard.

There, after a thorough search of the 13,000-ton ferry, they found trucks which could have been used by the Gaddafi regime. They also found the Setubal Express’ manifest did not tally.

Liverpool is operating under the banner of NATO’s Operation Unified Protector. As a result of the destroyer’s inspection, NATO chiefs ordered the ferry not to proceed to Libya, but put into Salerno in Italy.

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.

US forces attack three Libyan ships in Misrata

US forces attacked three Libyan ships, including a coast guard vessel, to stop them firing indiscriminately at merchant ships in the port of Misrata, military officials said on Tuesday.

The action on Monday night was against the Libyan coast guard vessel Vittoria and two smaller craft. 

The statement from the fleet flagship's home port in southern Italy said the US forces involved were an Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft, the guided missile destroyer USS Barry, and a Navy P-3C maritime patrol aircraft.

Raytheon Missiles Used in Libya Won’t Need Replacement Purchases

The Navy won’t buy specific replacements from Raytheon Co. (RTN) for 162 Tomahawk cruise missiles that were fired at Libyan air defenses in the opening days of the U.S.-led coalition’s campaign to set up a no-fly zone.

“The Tomahawks that were shot are part of our current inventory; there are more than ample replacements for those, more than ample,” Admiral Gary Roughead, the chief of naval operations, told reporters in Washington. The Navy has more than 3,000 Tomahawks, he said.

Missiles target Libyan air defences

BRITISH submariners have pinpointed key air defence installations in two nights of cruise missile strikes against Libya.

The launches from the Trafalgar-class boat – the first since the 2003 war against Saddam Hussein – are the Navy’s contribution to a rain of fire and steel which has landed on Colonel Gaddafi’s forces as Allied nations enforce UN Security Council Resolution 1973.

Aside from the Tomahawk strikes from the submarine – its identity is classified for security reasons – frigates HMS Westminster and Cumberland are on patrol off Libya enforcing an arms embargo under Operation Ellamy, the UK’s military action in support of the UN resolution.

Targets from Zuwara in western Libya to the rebel-held port of Benghazi in the east, plus a military command centre in the city’s capital of Tripoli have been attacked in the concerted Allied series of air and missile strikes.