Libya air capability crippled: Pentagon

WASHINGTON - Western strikes on Libyan air defenses over the past two days had crippled Muammar Gaddafi's capability to launch airplanes and detect foreign aircraft, a senior US military official said on Sunday.

"We judge these strikes to have been very effective in significantly degrading the regime's air defense capability," Vice Admiral Bill Gortney, director of the US military's Joint Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon.

"There has been no new air activity by the regime and we have detected no radar emissions from any of the air defense sites targeted," Gortney said. "There has been a significant decrease in use of all Libyan air surveillance radars."