Responding to newly launched air strikes by the U.S. and an international coalition, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi vowed to retaliate, threatening to “open the arms depots to defend Libya, its unity and sovereignty and might.” He called the intervention, aimed at preventing his regime from crushing a flagging rebel opposition, “barbaric.” Meanwhile, the BBC reports that Tripoli, the nation’s capital and a Gaddafi stronghold, is a ghost town, with residents holed up indoors as they hear bombs nearby.
