Canadian and British warships patrolling waters off Libya beat back a boat attack on the port of Misrata hours after the city's airport fell to rebels, NATO said on Thursday.
The Canadian frigate HMCS Charlottetown and British destroyer HSM Liverpool came together with a French gunboat not under NATO command to fight off the advance by forces backing Moamer Kadhafi's regime in the early hours, the alliance said in a statement.
The attack by an unspecified number of fast, small boats came as rebels celebrated following a siege by regime forces going back nearly two months.
"The boats were forced to abandon their attack and regime forces ashore covered their retreat with artillery and anti-aircraft cannon fire directed towards the allied warships," NATO said.
"HMCS Charlottetown responded with a short burst (of) machinegun fire and HMS Liverpool also returned fire. Neither warship sustained any damage or injury during this engagement," it said.
del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
YahooMyWeb
Google
Facebook
