Saturday, March 19, 2011

The French Are In?

News reports just in that French planes have entered Libyan air space.

UPDATE: Confirmed:

"There are French reconnaissance aircraft over Libya," a French military source told Reuters at 1415 GMT (10:15 a.m. EDT).

Although this implies there are no special forces on the ground to call in strikes if they need recon planes to hunt for targets. Steel yourself for extra civilian casualties without boots on the ground.

UPDATE: And now the balloon is officially up:

Top officials from the United States, Europe and the Arab world have announced immediate military action to protect civilians amid combat between Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's forces and rebel fighters.

Good hunting, lads.

UPDATE: The French are running combat air support over Benghazi to intercept any loyalist. This says Rafale and Mirage aircraft are over the city. The former could go air-to-air or ground attack; the latter could be fighters (which could also strike ground targets) or recon aircraft.