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It is also clear that coalition forces have helped to avert what could have been a bloody massacre in Benghazi
David Cameron
Swift military action against Colonel Gaddafi was necessary to avoid the slaughter of the Libyan opposition movement, David Cameron has told MPs.
Speaking in the House of Commons this afternoon the prime minister said the air strikes over the weekend had successfully stopped Gaddafi's forces from taking the opposition stronghold of Benghazi.
He said that coalition forces enforcing UN Security Council resolution 1973 had "largely neutralised Libyan air defences" and as a result a no-fly zone had "effectively been put in place over Libya".
"It is also clear that coalition forces have helped to avert what could have been a bloody massacre in Benghazi. In my view they did so just in the nick of time," he said.
And he rejected the suggestion from one backbench MP that the West should have waited until Arab planes could be in the air before it intervened.
"If we had waited for that, Benghazi would have fallen and, from that, probably Tobruk would have fallen and Gaddafi would have rolled up the whole of his country in the next 24 to 48 hours," Cameron said.
He added: "There was an urgent need to stop the slaughter."
But the prime minister said the intervention in Libya was "different from Iraq".
"This is about protecting people and giving the Libyan people a chance to shape their own destiny," he said.
Britain's contribution to the assault on Gaddafi includes RAF Tornadoes and Typhoons as well as Royal Navy frigates and a submarine.
Yesterday the Ministry of Defence confirmed that RAF Tornadoes were in action over Libya having flown a 3,000 mile round trip from Norfolk to North Africa and back.
A similar mission was called off after the MoD received intelligence that there were civilians in the target area.
MPs are due to vote on a motion that will lend parliamentary consent to the military action at 10pm. The government is expected to win overwhelming cross-party support.
Ed Miliband offered a strong endorsement of the government's position and said the West had a responsibility to protect the people of Libya.
He said: "It is just cause, with a feasible mission and it has international support."
The Labour leader said Britain should send a message to governments around the world that it was "simply not acceptable to turn to methods of repression and violence".
Miliband added: "We have to make a judgement about our role in the world and our duty to others".
"Whatever the flaws of multilateralism and the UN, it is our best hope," he said.
"If we can demonstrate the international community has come together in the case of Libya to prevent Colonel Gaddafi's action against his people standing, it will mark an important moment."
China, who abstained from the vote at the UN last week, has called for a meeting of the Security Council this evening to discuss the action taken so far.
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