PRESIDENT Hifikepunye Pohamba yesterday condemned the missile strikes “by non-African forces” on Libya.

Speaking at the 21st Independence celebrations at Otjiwarongo, Pohamba said: “We deplore and regret the latest invasion led by some European countries and the United States [of America] and Canada.”
Pohamba said Namibia stood by the resolution of the African Union’s Peace Council that “any foreign invasion in the internal affairs of any African state [should be] condemned and rejected in the strongest terms”.
Foreign Affairs Minister Utoni Nujoma represented Namibia at the AU meeting recently, Pohamba said.
The President said he was saddened that “some of our brothers and sisters in Libya are being attacked by non-African sources from overseas”.
Western powers launched a second wave of air strikes on Libya early yesterday after halting the advance of Muammar Gaddafi’s forces on Benghazi and targeting air defences to let their planes patrol the skies.
But the United States, carrying out the air strikes in a coalition with Britain, France, Italy and Canada among others, said the campaign was working and dismissed a ceasefire announcement by the Libyan military on Sunday evening.
Britain’s Defence Ministry said one of its submarines had again fired Tomahawk cruise missiles on Sunday night as part of a second wave of attacks to enforce the UN resolution.
“We and our international partners are continuing operations in support of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973,” a ministry spokesman said.
The intervention is the biggest against an Arab country since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
French government spokesman Francois Baroin said yesterday: “There is no information about killed civilians that the French command is aware of.”
Italy said it had warplanes in the air, after US and British warships and submarines launched 110 Tomahawk missiles on Saturday night and Sunday morning.

BENGHAZI NOT FREE FROM THREAT
Vice Admiral Bill Gortney, director of the US military’s Joint Staff, told reporters there had been no new Libyan air activity or radar emissions, but a significant decrease in Libyan air surveillance, since strikes began Saturday.
Benghazi was not yet free from threat, said Gortney, but Gaddafi’s forces in the area were in distress and “suffering from isolation and confusion” after the air assaults.
Late on Sunday night, Libyan officials took Western reporters to Gaddafi’s compound in Tripoli, a sprawling complex that houses his private quarters as well as military barracks, anti-aircraft batteries and other installations, to see what they said was the site of a missile attack two hours earlier.
“It was a barbaric bombing,” said government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim, showing pieces of shrapnel that he said came from the missile. “This contradicts American and Western (statements) ... that it is not their target to attack this place.” A Libyan military spokesman announced a new ceasefire on Sunday, saying that “the Libyan armed forces ... have issued a command to all military units to safeguard an immediate ceasefire from 9 p.m. (1900 GMT) this evening”.
Both before and after he spoke, heavy anti-aircraft gunfire boomed above central Tripoli.
Outside Benghazi, smouldering, shattered tanks and troop carriers from what had been Gaddafi’s advancing forces littered the main road. The charred bodies of at least 14 government soldiers lay scattered in the desert.
But with Gaddafi having vowed to fight to the death, there were fears his troops might try to force their way into cities, seeking shelter from air attacks among the civilian population.
In central Benghazi, sporadic explosions and heavy exchanges of gunfire could be heard in the streets late on Sunday evening. A Reuters witness said the firing lasted about 40 minutes.
In Misrata, the last rebel-held city in western Libya, government tanks moved in after a base used by Gaddafi’s forces outside was hit by air strikes on Saturday, residents said.
“There is fighting between the rebels and Gaddafi’s forces. Their tanks are in the centre of Misrata ... There are so many casualties we cannot count them,” Abdelbasset, a spokesman for the rebels in Misrata, told Reuters on Sunday afternoon.
Arab support for a no-fly zone provided crucial underpinning for the passage of a UN Security Council resolution last week that paved the way for Western action to stop Gaddafi killing civilians as he fights an uprising against his 41-year rule.
US President Barack Obama spoke to Jordan’s King Abdullah, while Vice President Joe Biden telephoned leaders in Algeria and Kuwait to shore up Arab support.

NO-FLY ZONE NOW IN PLACE
The US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, said the no-fly zone was now in place.
But Defence Secretary Robert Gates said the United States would not have a “pre-eminent role” in maintaining it, and expected to turn over “primary responsibility” within days, perhaps to Britain or France.
US officials, eager to avoid similarities to the invasion of Iraq and the toppling of Saddam Hussein, have been playing down Washington’s role and emphasising that overthrowing or killing Gaddafi is not the goal of the attacks on Libya.
Mullen told CBS television the endgame of the campaign was “very uncertain” and acknowledged it could end in a stalemate.
Gates told reporters: “I think this is basically going to have to be resolved by the Libyans themselves.”

NATO’S ROLE
In Brussels, NATO envoys failed to agree on any alliance involvement in enforcing the no-fly zone. NATO members Turkey and Germany have spoken out against the zone, and diplomats said France had argued against involvement by an alliance whose reputation in the Arab world had been tainted by its involvement in the war in Afghanistan.
French planes fired the first shots of the intervention on Saturday, destroying tanks and armoured vehicles near Benghazi.
France sent an aircraft carrier towards Libya and its planes were over the country again on Sunday, defence officials said. Britain said its planes had targeted Libya’s air defences, mainly around the capital Tripoli.
Other countries, including Qatar, also dispatched aircraft to participate in the operation, US officials said. (Additional reporting by Reuters)