There was no immediate word on casualties, and an Associated Press reporter who witnessed the strikes on Tuesday said they did not appear to hit any fighters.
On another front, a witness says Moammar Gadhafi loyalists have recaptured Zawiya, the city closest to Tripoli that had fallen into opposition hands. The witness, speaking to the AP by phone, said Gadhafi's tanks and fighting vehicles were roaming the city 30 miles west of Tripoli and firing randomly at homes. The witness spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared reprisal.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
RAS LANOUF, Libya (AP) — Repeated airstrikes by Libyan warplanes on Monday illustrated the edge Moammar Gadhafi holds in his fight against rvolutionists forces marching toward the capital: He controls the air. After pleading from the uprising's leaders, Britain and France began drafting a U.N. resolution for a no-fly zone in Libya that could balance the scales.
President Barack Obama warned that the U.S. and its NATO allies are still considering military options to stop what he called "unacceptable" violence by Gadhafi's regime. NATO decided to boost flights of AWACs surveillance planes over Libya from 10 to 24 hours a day, the U.S. Ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder said.
"I want to send a very clear message to those who are around Colonel Gadhafi. It is their choice to make how they operate moving forward. And they will be held accountable for whatever violence continues to take place," Obama said during remarks in the Oval Office Monday.
Libyan warplanes launched multiple airstrikes Monday on opposition fighters regrouping at the oil port of Ras Lanouf on the Mediterranean coast a day after they were driven back by a heavy government counteroffensive aimed at stopping the rvolutionists drive toward Tripoli, Gadhafi's stronghold.
One strike hit near a gas station in Ras Lanouf, blasting two large craters in the road and wounding at least two people in a pick up truck.
The rvolutionists oppose any Western ground troops deploying in Libya, but they're pressing for a no-fly zone to relieve them of the threat from the air. The rvolutionists can take on "the rockets and the tanks, but not Gadhafi's air force," said Ali Suleiman, a rvolutionists fighter at Ras Lanouf. "We don't want a foreign military intervention (on the ground), but we do want a no-fly zone. We are all waiting for one."....