WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama worked Tuesday to bridge differences among allies about how to manage the military campaign in Libya.
All day, airstrikes rocked Tripoli, but forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi showed no sign of ending their sieges of rebel-held cities. Two U.S. airmen bailed out over Libya and were rescued after the crash of their fighter jet.
Obama and the leaders of Britain and France stepped up efforts to work out an accord on who would be in charge of military operations once the initial onslaught on Libya's air defense systems was complete.
Obama reiterated that the United States would step back from the leading role within days, but he also said the U.S. was confronting the complexities of running the military campaign with a multilateral force cobbled together quickly and without a clear delineation among its members about their roles.
The president expressed confidence that the coalition would resolve disagreements over the role of NATO, which had flared in recent days over France's insistence that the alliance not play a leading role in the operation. NATO now seems likely to provide "command and control" functions, but with a separate authority running the operation, which includes Arab and other non-NATO countries.
"I would expect that over the next several days you will have clarity and a meeting of the minds of all those who are participating in the process," Obama said in a news conference in El Salvador, where he was nearing the end of a Latin American trip that has been eclipsed by the military strikes on forces loyal to Gadhafi.
Even as the Western allies tried to settle management issues, they were struggling to corral Arab backing for the campaign. Obama telephoned the emir of Qatar, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, on Tuesday to nail down his support. So far, Qatar is the only Arab state to offer fighter jets to help enforce a no-fly zone, and there were signs that other Arab states were wavering in their support.
Coalition on the fly
The tension and confusion laid bare the unwieldiness of the coalition - which U.S. officials conceded had been put together on the fly - even four days into the operation, after the United States had fired 160 Tomahawk missiles and lost its first plane, an F-15E Strike Eagle, which crashed in the desert after mechanical troubles. The plane's two-member crew had minor injuries but was rescued.
"This is complicated," Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said to reporters with him in Moscow. "This command-and-control business is complicated. We haven't done something like this, kind of on the fly before. So it's not surprising to me that it would take a few days to get it all sorted out."
At least three bomb blasts were heard in Tripoli on Tuesday evening as flares from Libyan antiaircraft guns arced across the sky. Attacks by pro-Gadhafi forces were particularly intense in the western cities of Zintan and Misurata - where snipers and artillery have killed dozens over the past five days and wounded scores more, a rebel spokesman said.
Gadhafi: 'I am here'
Gadhafi made a brief but defiant appearance on Libyan television Tuesday night, appearing at what reporters were told was his Tripoli residence to denounce the bombing raids and pledge victory. "I am here. I am here. I am here," he shouted from a balcony to supporters waving green flags.
Adm. Samuel J. Locklear III, a U.S. officer who is the tactical commander of the mission, said that his intelligence reports confirmed that Gadhafi's forces were attacking civilians in Misurata.
The admiral, who briefed reporters at the Pentagon by telephone on Tuesday afternoon, did not say whether there had been a response yet, but said, "We are considering all options."
A rebel spokesman, reached by satellite phone in Misurata, said he had not seen any evidence of airstrikes there against the Gadhafi forces, which continued to shell the city and threaten residents with sniper fire.
"They now control all the way to the town center, and they have put snipers on the rooftops along the way," said the rebel spokesman, Mohamed, using only his first name to protect his family.
Airstrikes escalate
Despite statements from U.S. military officials that the fighting and level of coalition "kinetic activity" in Libya would soon decline, the Pentagon released figures showing that on Tuesday there were more coalition airstrikes, 57, than on any day since Saturday, the first day of the U.S.-led assaults.
In San Salvador, Obama said that the coalition would "fairly shortly" be able to claim it had imposed a no-fly zone over Libya. "We will also be able to say we have averted immediate tragedy," he said at a news conference with the president of El Salvador, Mauricio Funes.
Obama reiterated that the U.S. would yield its lead role to France, Britain and other countries in the coming days. U.S. planes will not enforce the no-fly zone, he said, nor will U.S. ships enforce the arms embargo stipulated by last week's U.N. Security Council resolution. "That's why building this international coalition has been so important," he said, "because it means the United States is not bearing all the cost."
What the French want
The building of this coalition has been tortuous. On Tuesday, NATO countries made slow and ill-tempered progress toward deciding who will run the operation.
France proposed a committee of foreign ministers of countries involved in the operation to act as a "political steering body," France's foreign minister, Alain Juppe, told Parliament on Tuesday. NATO would provide "support" - the military "command and control" necessary to coordinate the ships and planes. A senior U.S. official declined to comment on the French proposal.
After two days of meetings in Brussels, NATO ambassadors will meet today after getting advice from their governments to try to approve a deal.
U.S. and British plans to have NATO play the leading role have been blocked by France and Turkey. This has led Norway to refuse to fly its planes and Italy to say that it might have to rethink the way its air bases were being used. With different air forces flying and no central control, the Italians say, the operation would be uncoordinated, even dangerous.
France argues that NATO command would be opposed by the Arab League. Some allies suggest that President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, having pushed Washington to act on Libya, wants to keep himself visible as the driver of the Libyan policy.
