French Shoot Down Libyan Jet

The AP reports:

French fighter jets struck an air base deep inside Libya and destroyed one of Moammar Gadhafi's planes Thursday, and NATO ships patrolled the coast to block the flow of arms and mercenaries. Other coalition bombers struck artillery, arms depots and parked helicopters.

Libyan state television on Thursday showed blackened and mangled bodies that it said were victims of airstrikes in Tripoli, the capital. Rebels have accused Gadhafi's forces of taking bodies from the morgue and pretending they are civilian casualties.

The international military operation against Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's forces may last days or weeks — but not months, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said. But the rebels who largely control Libya's east remain outgunned and disorganized — instead of handing out weapons at a checkpoint, they were distributing sneakers to would-be fighters on Thursday.

The French strikes overnight hit a base about 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of the Libyan coastline, French military spokesman Thierry Burkhard told reporters in Paris on Thursday without elaborating on the target or possible damage.

France's joint chiefs of staff, in a statement on their Web site, said French surveillance aircraft noticed a Libyan combat plane that was flying near Misrata in violation of the U.N. Security Council resolution. A French Rafale fighter jet fired a guided air-to-ground missile on the Libyan jet after it landed at the Misrata air base.

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