The
ships were sunk in coordinated attacks on the ports of Tripoli,
Al Khums and Sirte, an alliance statement said.
"Given the escalating use of naval
assets, NATO had no choice but to take decisive action
to protect the civilian population of Libya and NATO forces
at sea," Rear-Admiral Russell Harding, deputy commander
of the NATO mission in Libya, said in the statement.
In the above picture, we can clearly recognize
the only Koni class Frigate remaining in the Libyan Navy
inventory.
The second unit has been captured at the begining of the
conflict by the rebels in the port of Benghazi, as shown
in our March
report on the Libyan Naval Forces.
Royal
Air Force statement about the raid: RAF aircraft participated in a major NATO strike against
Colonel Qadhafi's navy, as part of Operation Unified Protector.
The RAF attack was mounted against the naval base at Al
Khums, the nearest concentration of regime warships to the
port of Misratah. Colonel Qadhafi has repeatedly attempted
to close the port of Misratah to humanitarian shipping.
As
well as hitting two ships in the harbour, RAF Tornados successfully
targeted a dockyard facility constructing fast inflatable
boats.
The
destruction of the facility and a significant stockpile
of the boats will reduce the regime's ability to sustain
such tactics.
With
8 ships destroyed, needless to say that Libyan Navy's power
and capability have been significantly reduced.
