The coalition air effort to halt the Libyan dictators attacks on civilians continued into Thursday for a sixth day, with an airstrike in the Tripoli suburb of Tajura.
On Wednesday night, the dictators regime reported that military and civilian locations in the neighborhood of Al-Jfara and in the Tagora district of the capital had been struck by "crusading colonial" bombardment but they were unable to prove it. In response, Joint Task Force Operation Odyssey Dawn Lt. Cmdr. Jim Hoeft said "It is not likely that civilians were a part of any airstrike today."
He said coalition forces "have been using all necessary measures to protect the citizens of Libya from the violence and killing inflicted upon them by Colonel Gadhafi."
An opposition activist in Tripoli accused dictators state media of lying about civilian victims of the coalition airstrikes. For example, she said, she was accompanying a cousin to a hospital for medical care when she saw a TV producer asking some people to close their eyes and play dead and others to pretend they were wounded. Some of the "wounded," she said, were soldiers in civilian garb.
On Wednesday, dictators regime officials invited journalists to visit a house in Tripoli that had been damaged in an air raid, but -- after driving around for more than half an hour -- were apparently unable to find it and so returned the journalists to their hotel. The drive revealed a city quieter than normal -- about half the stores were closed.
People appeared apprehensive, anxious. Opponents of Gadhafi were afraid to speak publicly.
In Ajdabiya, parts of the city fell to opposition forces even though Gadhafi's men, who had been pounding the area with artillery and heavy tank bombardments, retained control of the northern and western gates, opposition fighters and witnesses told CNN.
A hospital staffer and opposition fighters said nine people were killed Wednesday in fighting near the northern gate.
So far, the coalition has crippled the Libyan air force, and established a no-fly zone that spans Libya from east to west along its coastline, said U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Gerard Hueber.
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