’Acts of war’

From Paris, the Prime Minister comments on the Libya campaign.

“We should not kid ourselves. Whenever we engage in military action — essentially acts of war — these are difficult situations,” Harper said at the end of an emergency summit, hastily convened in Paris to deal with the crisis. “And we will have to monitor this very closely and be very careful what we do every step of the way.”

Harper said the no-fly zone that Canada, France, Britain and others have agreed to enforce over Libyan skies is a complicated affair that could involve loss of innocent lives. Enforcing a no-fly zone could involve attacking Gadhafi air defence forces, among other things. Minimizing civilian casualties was a serious topic of discussion among his fellow leaders, Harper said. “These campaigns are complicated and one cannot promise perfection. One cannot promise there will not be casualties on our side either. But obviously all precautions will be taken to minimize our own casualties and minimize those of innocent civilians.”

The campaign has begun with French, American and British military strikes.