All Quiet on the Sidra Front; Fleet Remains

The White House reported no new incidents involving U.S. or Libyan forces today as the United States continued air and sea operations in the disputed Gulf of Sidra after the Navy’s pounding of Libyan ships and an anti-aircraft base Monday and Tuesday.

Presidential spokesman Larry Speakes said elements of the fleet are still inside the gulf but are staying “clear of Libyan territorial waters,” which the United States acknowledges extend only 12 miles off the Libyan coast. Libya claims sovereignty over the entire gulf.

Speakes said U.S. ships and warplanes “continue to operate in the Gulf of Sidra in the same general area they have been for the past two days” in an exercise designed to challenge Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi’s claim over the gulf on Libya’s north coast.

Speakes said no decision has been made when to halt the exercise and return to normal operations in the Mediterranean.

Flights May End Earlier

But as relative calm returned to disputed gulf waters, Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger and other Pentagon officials hinted that U.S. flight operations in the area may end sooner than the scheduled April 1.

In the absence of a new Libyan retaliation, Pentagon sources said they expect the carrier operations to end Thursday.

“Much depends on what happens today and overnight because (the Libyans) have to understand that there cannot be a perception of anybody driving us out,” said one source, requesting anonymity.

Speakes said the White House has not decided whether President Reagan should notify Congress under the War Powers Act of the clashes that have occurred so far. He said lawyers are studying the question.

The act, a result of the Vietnam War, requires the President to inform Congress within 48 hours whenever U.S. forces become engaged in continuing hostilities and forbids him to commit troops to combat for more than 60 days without congressional approval.

11-Hour Battering

The more than 24 hours of peace followed an 11-hour battering of Libyan naval forces and an on-shore missile battery that the United States said had fired at U.S. planes over the gulf.

Four Libyan ships were hit during the confrontations Monday and early Tuesday; three reportedly were sunk.

U.S. officials said there was another “event” Tuesday involving a Libyan patrol ship, but no further details were immediately forthcoming.