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West pounds Libya, Gaddafi vows retaliation

British and French forces hammered Libya from the air and sea, prompting leader Muammar Gaddafi to warn on Sunday of a long war in the Mediterranean "battlefield" as Tripoli reported dozens of deaths.

In Benghazi, medics and AFP correspondents said at least 94 people died in an assault launched on Friday on the rebel-held Mediterranean city by forces loyal to Gaddafi.

In the West's biggest intervention in the Arab world since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, mounted exactly eight years earlier, US warships and a British submarine fired at least 110 Tomahawk cruise missiles into Libya on Saturday, the US military said.

And three US B-2 stealth bombers dropped 40 bombs on a major airfield in a bid to destroy much of the Libyan air force, CBS News reported, while fighter planes also searched for ground forces to attack.

A furious Gaddafi said on Sunday that all Libyans were armed and ready to fight until victory to defeat what Tripoli has branded a "barbaric aggression".

"We promise you a long, drawn-out war with no limits," said the Libyan leader, who was speaking on state television for a second straight day without appearing in front of camera.

"America, France, or Britain...that are in a pact against us today, they will not enjoy our oil," he said. "We do not have to retreat from the battlefield because we are defending our land and our dignity."

US President Barack Obama said the "Odyssey Dawn" operation launched under a UN Security Council resolution was a "limited military action," unlike the regime change aims of the war against Iraq's Saddam Hussein.

20:54 | |

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