Word: tripoli
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Next on the hit list was the military section of the Tripoli International Airport, base of Libya's fleet of nine Il-76s, which have been used in terrorist operations for supply and transport. A third target was the Benghazi army barracks, which Gaddafi uses as an alternative command post. Then came barracks at the naval port of Sidi Bilal, near Tripoli, a commando training facility. Finally, security officials recommended a strike at the Benina airfield, where Libya's MiG-23 interceptors are based, as a precaution against counterattack...
With one squadron heading for Tripoli and the other for Benghazi, pilots dropped to altitudes under 500 ft. to avoid radar detection. This strict insistence on low-level approaches is a fairly recent development for the U.S. military. "Every pilot loves to do yanks and banks and dive and drive, but this is dangerous until you have attrited the threat," Navy Secretary John Lehman said last week in an interview with TIME. "You have to hit with antiradar devices. This results in an emphasis on night, low-level attack, which can beat any defense if you do it right...
Over their targets, U.S. pilots were confronted with an astonishing barrage of Libyan defensive fire. The night sky over Tripoli was stitched with orange streaks as tracers and missiles arced up toward the attackers. "They fired everything they had," said a senior Pentagon official, including Soviet-built SAM-2, -3, -6 and -8 missiles and ZSU-23-4 antiaircraft guns. Said Vice Admiral Frank Kelso, commander of the Sixth Fleet, who was in overall command of El Dorado Canyon: "I don't think anybody has ever flown a mission in any more dense SAM environment than they were in today...
...jamming devices, as well as HARM missiles to take out radar sites, were the first to reach the target cities, approaching at 6:54 p.m. Precisely at 7 p.m., the squadron of A-6 fighters roared over Benghazi from the Gulf of Sidra and began bombing the airfield. In Tripoli, part of the F-111 squadron had circled around inland and approached from the south. The city was ablaze with light, and not a single air-raid alarm sounded. "We were able to see the hits," recalled one Navy airman, who had spent many hours studying photos of his target...
...Tripoli, the thunderous whine of the jet engines was followed by sudden concussive crescendos, as 500-lb. gravity bombs and 2,000-lb. Paveway II laser-guided bombs started to explode. The massive blasts shook windows throughout the city, jolting sleeping residents awake--and sometimes more than that. "When the firing woke me up, I immediately thought of throwing myself on the floor," recalled an Italian resident. "Then a big explosion...