Libyan MIGs Fly Near U.S. Cruiser in Mediterranean

Libyan jet fighters, in the first such overt military move since the U.S. bombing raids last year, twice last week flew so near a Navy cruiser in the Mediterranean Sea that the ship’s crew was forced to man battle stations, Pentagon sources said Thursday.

The Pentagon, in a statement in response to a reporter’s query, confirmed that the Soviet-built MIG-23 “Flogger” fighter jets approached the nuclear-powered South Carolina twice on June 17.

Pentagon sources, who spoke on condition they not be identified, said the flights forced the crew of the heavy cruiser to man battle stations both times.

The cruiser was steaming with two smaller Navy ships in the central Mediterranean, approximately 100 miles from the Libyan coastline and north of the so-called “Line of Death”--Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi’s border for waters he claims in the Gulf of Sidra. The United States contends most of the gulf is in international waters.

Two Libyan jets first approached the cruiser around 1 p.m. local time, flying within seven miles of the cruiser, the Pentagon said. A second flight by another pair of MIGs occurred around 4 p.m., and this time the fighters flew over the ship at an altitude of approximately 6,000 feet, the Pentagon said.

In both instances, the fighters had been monitored by the cruiser almost from the moment they flew northward from Libya over the Mediterranean, but the aircraft “did not demonstrate hostile intent,” the Pentagon said.

A Pentagon official, who asked not to be named, elaborated by saying the MIGs did not activate any radar for their weaponry and never maneuvered into a position to fire missiles.

The South Carolina “took every precaution” as the planes approached and was prepared to open fire at a moment’s notice, but the Libyans withdrew without making any threatening moves, the sources said.