Posted By Joshua Keating 
Wednesday, March 23, 2011 - 9:16 AM
Top news: Western airstrikes appear to have silenced the pro-Qaddafi forces engaged in shelling the town of Misrata. The town have been under constant bombardment, but the firing of artillery stopped after two bombinbs by allied planes this morning. At least two explosions were also heard in Tripoli this morning. Western warplanes have now flown more than 300 sorties over Libya and fired 162 Tomahawk missiles.
In an apparently live television broadcast, Muammar al-Qaddafi vowed not to surrender and called the western powers carrying out the airstrikes "a bunch of fascists who will end up in the dustbin of history."
On Tuesday, President Obama called President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain in an attempt to resolve an impasse over command of the mission. The U.S. plans to cede control of the mission within days but France has been resistant to having NATO take the primary coordinating role. The emerging deal would western forces rely on NATO assets but not flag the mission as a NATO-one to avoid alienating Arab countries.
