Word: libya
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Wrapped in desert scarves against the blowing sand, some 2,000 Chadian troops raced into southern Libya aboard four-wheel-drive Toyota pickups mounted with machine guns. The raiders overran the Maaten es Sarra military base 60 miles inside Libya and demolished all the arms and aircraft they could find. Then, traveling without lights beneath the moon and stars, the troops sped home. It was the first time Chad had invaded Libya since their border conflict began 14 years ago. Officials in N'Djamena, Chad's capital, claimed that the attack killed 1,713 Libyans and destroyed 26 planes...
...Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi last week ordered a retaliatory air strike on N'Djamena. But as two Soviet-built Tupolev-22 bombers approached the capital, French troops fired a U.S.-made Hawk antiaircraft missile. One of the jets exploded in a green phosphorescent fireball, and the other fled toward Libya. Two other Tupolevs later struck the town of Abeche, some 400 miles to the east, killing two civilians but missing their target, an airstrip...
...downing over N'Djamena provoked a shrill outcry in Tripoli. The Libyan news agency JANA called the raid a "combined Franco-American military action" and charged that Washington and Paris were "behind the aggression against Libya." In Paris, Libyan diplomats accused France of bearing "direct responsibility" for the escalation of the war. Libyan Ambassador Hamed el Houderi warned that "those who put oil on the fire risked getting burned...
...week repeated calls for a "negotiated solution" to the war. Though France supports Chadian President Hissene Habre's claim to the Aozou Strip, the Chirac government would prefer to have the issue settled by international arbitration. Chad's African neighbors take similar positions. At week's end Chad and Libya agreed to accept a cease-fire proposed by the Organization of African Unity. Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda said he was seeking to begin peace talks between the two countries...
...greeted Gaddafi's latest setbacks with unconcealed glee. "We basically jump for joy every time the Chadians ding the Libyans," said a U.S. official. State Department Spokesman Charles Redman asserted that "Libya has illegally occupied Chad for a number of years" and is believed to have up to 5,000 troops in the country, mostly in the Aozou Strip. The Reagan Administration has provided $33 million in military aid to Chad over the past ten months and last week was considering a new request for antiaircraft Stinger missiles. The White House hopes that Libya's losses in the war will...