Canadian Jets Fly First Mission Over Libya

Four CF-18s escorted another nation’s jets on a bombing run against Libyan government targets.

Governments usually debate conflicts before entering them, but the U.S.-led strikes in Libya happened so fast that by the time Canadian politicians began debating the conflict in the House of Commons, Canadian jets had already left an Italian airbase bound for North Africa. Debate on the Libyan mission opened in the House of Commons at 3:15 pm EST, by which time four CF-18s were in the air to escort another nation’s bombing run. The Canadian jets didn’t drop any bombs, but could engage in a live fire mission as early as Monday night. A coalition of countries led by the U.S., Britain, and France were given UN authorization to use “all necessary measures” to protect Libyan civilians last week.