6th Fleet to resume exercises off Libya

Press, 12 February 1986, Page 11

6th Fleet to resume exercises off Libya

NZPA-Reuter Washington

The United States 6th Fleet warships and aircraft will resume manoeuvres north of Libya today in a continuing war of nerves with the Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar Gadaffi. The United States Defence Department announced yesterday that fleet aircraft, including Tomcat and Hornet jet fighters from the aircraftcarriers Coral Sea and Saratoga, would fly in the so-called Tripoli Flight Zone of the southern Mediterranean for four days. The exercises will begin at 1 p.m. today (New Zealand time) and end on Saturday.

Administration officials said that none of the 32 American ships now stationed in the Mediterranean intended to sail into the Gulf of Sirte, which Colonel Gadaffi says is Libyan territory. But they left open the possibility that American aircraft might fly over the

gulf. Colonel Gadaffi has drawn a “line of death” just north of the entrance to the gulf.

The 6th Fleet on January 30 ended a week of manoeuvres in the Tripoli Flight Zone, which includes the gulf, but no American ships or planes challenged Colonel Gadaffi’s claim during that period. Soviety-built Libyan Sukhoi 22 jets were shot down over the gulf after they challenged the Americans in August, 1981.

Tensions between Tripoli and Washington have increased since December 27, when Arab guerrillas launched attacks on the Rome and Vienna airports, in which 20 persons were killed, five of them Americans. Colonel Gadaffi has denied American allegations that he was responsible for the attacks. He has said that if the United States attacks Libya he will start a war.

Pentagon officials refused to elaborate on

plans for the manoeuvres or to comment on reports that American planes might offer to help Israel if Libyan jets tried to intercept any Israeli airliners over the Mediterranean.

Israel’s Defence Minister, Mr Yitzhak Rabin, said in Jerusalem yesterday that Israel could protect its El Al airline flights against Libyan interception without American help. “El Al planes and flights are safe ... without the help of the 6th Fleet,” he told Parliament. Colonel Gadaffi threatened to intercept Israeli airliners after last week’s incident, in which Israeli fighters intercepted a Libyan executive jet en route from Tripoli to Damascus, and forced it to land in northern Israel. Israeli officials said the Libyan jet was believed initially to be carrying Palestinian guerrilla leaders. But none was found and the aircraft was released after five hours.