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The US has said it is closely monitoring the situation in Libya and is in constant touch with its allies like NATO on possible actions against the Gaddafi regime, as it dispatched two military aircraft to the region with relief supplies for thousands of foreigners fleeing the strife-torn country.
Both the State Department and Pentagon said on Friday night that two C-130 military transports had landed in Djerba, Tunisia, bordering Libya, delivering humanitarian supplies from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), a day after the President, Mr Barack Obama, made the announcement in this regard.
As part of ‘Operation Odyssey Dawn’, each aircraft carried three pallets of aid supplies, including 4,000 blankets, 40 rolls of plastic sheeting and 9,600 ten-litre water containers. The supplies had been offloaded and were now headed for the border between Libya and Tunisia. The military aircraft had been sent at the request of Egyptian Government.
The entire operation under the US African Command has been code-named “Operation Odyssey Dawn”, the Pentagon spokesman, Col Dave Lapan, told reporters here.
The estimate of the International Organisation for Migration at this point is that 200,000 people have fled Libya. Of those, roughly 108,000 have been repatriated thus far. There is an international airlift in progress which has significantly helped in easing the crisis caused by the influx of migrants into Tunisia, Mr Lapan said.
The State Department spokesman, Mr P.J. Crowley, said the C-130 aircraft were expected to return tomorrow and participate in the flow of migrants from Tunisia back to Egypt.
“It is a tribute to both Egypt and Tunisia that notwithstanding their own transitions in each country, they have been able to effectively work with the international community and, broadly speaking, manage this tremendous influx out of Libya in both directions,” he said, adding that the global community, including the US, is prepared to help them.
The Pentagon, which has dispatched considerable air and naval assets to the region along with 400 marines, said it is closely monitoring the situation in Libya.
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