Responses across the world

On Wednesday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reiterated his call for an immediate end to violence by all parties and for the responsibility to protect civilians.

"All those who violate international humanitarian and human rights law will be held fully accountable," a spokesman quoted Ban as saying.

Meanwhile, countries across the world continued to voice their concern.

The Russian State Duma, or the lower house of the Russian Parliament, on Wednesday issued a statement calling on Western countries to stop military operations against Libya to avoid possible deaths among the civilians.

Venezuela also condemned the military aggression against Libya, saying it violates the country's sovereignty and self-determination.

The Sri Lankan government also said it does not approve or encourage the airstrikes in Libya which run contrary to the UN resolution aimed at alleviating civilian suffering.

Continued attacks and bombardments have also put the role of the Arab League (AL) under increasing dispute.

Many said the AL made a mistake when consenting to the intervention in Libya, a campaign motivated by the oil interests of participating countries and likely to affect regional stability.

AL chief Amr Moussa also said that the assaults went beyond last week's UN resolution, and Arab media sources told Xinhua that Moussa was trying to back down after he learned of civilian casualties.

"What we are seeing is the same scenario as Iraq, in which the Western forces use the mandate of the AL to enforce a no-fly zone and immediately begin bombing the entire infrastructure," said an African diplomat.X "The main objective of those countries is guaranteeing Libyan oil and wealth. Their actions will create clashes between the two Libyan factions while at the same time weakening them and making them very dependent on the West," he added.

"At the end, we will see an economically backward Libya and an easy flowing of low-priced oil. This is what we see in Iraq and this is what we will see in Libya," he said.