Strikes mandate like a crusade, claims Putin

RUSSIAN Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said a UN resolution authorising military action in Libya resembled “medieval calls for crusades” after Western forces launched a second wave of air strikes.

Libya’s rebels scrambled to try to exploit international strikes on Muammar Gaddafi’s forces and go on the offensive, as some of the opposition’s citizen-fighters charged ahead to fight troops besieging the rebel city of Ajdabiya yesterday. But the rebellion’s more organised military units were still not ready.

The air campaign by US and European militaries has rearranged the map in Libya and rescued rebels from the immediate threat they faced only days ago of being crushed under a powerful advance by Gaddafi’s forces.