May 14 - 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...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants...
officials said.
The Canadian frigate HMCS Charlottetown and British destroyer HMS Liverpool came together with a French gunboat not under NATO command to fight off the advance by forces backing Muammar Qadaffy's regime, the military alliance said.
The attack by an unspecified number of fast, small Zodiac-type boats came as rebels celebrated following the partial breaking of a two-month siege by regime forces.
''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 officials 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.