Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Libyan officials sounded an alarm Saturday over NATO bombings of 3 ports that they said would trigger a crisis by limiting the action of afford boats carrying fussy supplies in and out of the war-torn nation.
NATO jets demolished eight Libyan warships in the ports of Tripoli, Al-Khums and Sirte after concluding namely Col. Moammar Gadhafi had began using military assets to lay mines and hamper multinational humanitarian support, said Mike Bracken, NATO's naval lecturer.
Libyan officials said, however, that the airstrikes violated the United Nations resolution mandating the conservation of civilians. Amran al-Forjani, Libya's main coastguard commandant, cried the action a "outrageous attack."
No deaths alternatively injuries were reported.
Bracken said at a Friday news meeting that the NATO strikes were justified.
Gadhafi was indiscriminately mining waters in Misrata and hampering the stream of humanitarian aid, Bracken said.
"He was using maritime forces to lay mines. These were legal targets," he said.
NATO warplanes have been pounding military targets since March after the U.N. Security Council ratified a resolution to defend civilians by any manner essential as Gadhafi's forces attempt to quash a approximately three-month rebellion against Gadhafi's almost 42 annuals of rule.
NATO and people rights groups said Libyan forces have targeted aid ships coming in and out of Misrata, where a bloody see-saw war has angered between Gadhafi's forces and the rebels.
But the seashore guard commandant denied that his vessels were used to attack Misrata or any other Libyan city.
A Libyan official who led CNN workers on a excursion of the district Friday said the commercial port, no the handy military wharf, was hit. From the distance at which CNN was allowed to view the area,
Buy ghds, it was no clear what arrange of vessels were kick.
Six rockets struck in three strikes that hit five coast guard ships and one marine vessel in dock for conservation, said Mohammed Ahmed Rashed, the port general manager.
The port remained operational, according to officials, merely the strikes would impact the limited movement of supply ships.
Libyan officials said the port is the main food and oil supply line, and they expect the strikes to discourage freight ships from coming for of security concerns and to increase the insurance on ships and merchandise.
In distinct evolution, the European Union ambition open an office in Benghazi on Sunday, officials said.
Catherine Ashton, diplomatic plan chief of the European Union,
ghd mini, will open the office, said the National Transitional Council, which is based in the metropolis.
The council, in a expression, quoted Ashton as mentioning, "It will be an medal to meet the human who have been fighting because democracy and a better hereafter as Libya. I blueprint to meet key folk from the National Transitional Council, civil society groups and our international partners, and will report behind to EU Foreign Ministers on Monday. Opening an EU office namely an momentous semaphore of our unfaltering support because the Libyan people. It namely the EU putting words into operation."
Also Saturday, Libyan rebels loosened four French nationals retarded in Benghazi since May 11. The 4 voyaged to Egypt on Saturday, where they were taken in by French consular authorities, the French Foreign Ministry said.
And in western Libya, a administration bus carrying three foreigners going for international medium organizations -- Phoenix TV, BBC and Reuters -- was attacked by an angry crowd in Zawiya. The journalists were on their path to the Tunisian border.
They fled unharmed.
Yijun Zhou, a reporter for Hong Kong-based Phoenix television, said an angry mob of dozens circled the bus and a male with a knife slashed the tires of the bus, hit in the doors and ascended on emulated by five more men.
Reuters producer Guy Desmond, who was also ashore the bus,
cheap Coach, said at least 2 of the attackers had guns and 1 had a knife.
They shouted at the correspondents, claiming to understand their nationalities and employers.The journalists were taken to a police station for two hours before they returned to Tripoli to obtain another bus back to the boundary.
Meanwhile, pro-Gadhafi forces have unleashed their biggest attack yet against a rebel fort in the mountains of western Libya, one of the Libyan leader's former commons said.
As of Friday night,
Cheap Gucci, one riot was dead and three were wounded, one of them critically, the sometime commander said. He immediately commands rebels in Zintan, using the name Hajj Usama.
The aggression began Thursday when almost 150 of Gadhafi's soldiers crews began firing on three fronts near Zintan, about 90 miles southwest of the capital, Tripoli.
In answer, Usama said he fulfilled hundreds of fighters to slit off Gadhafi's advance.
CNN's Nic Robertson contributed to this report.
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