France and Italy to Send Military Officers to Libya

The plan comes after Britain said Tuesday it would send up to 20 military advisers to aid the rebels and signals a stepping up of efforts to dislodge the Libyan leader. The separate announcements also highlighted the difficulty of coordinating the actions of North Atlantic Treaty Organization members.

Hours after the European commitments, a series of explosions rocked Tripoli, the Libyan capital, early Thursday morning. State television quoted a military source saying a neighborhood was struck with four missiles resulting in the death of seven people and injury of 18, all of them civilians. It blamed "crusader aggression," its term for NATO forces.