Indeed, apparently they shot their own plane down. I was already thinking... MiG-23, he must have run out of Sukhois?
This lead me to think about the coalition-pilots. How are they going to tell the difference between Gadaffis and the rebels aircraft?
Not, rebels won't fly anymore. In fact, this may have been a try at influencing the Paris talks, pretending to show in front of all cameras that the Libyan air force was flying.
If a rebel aircraft is in the no fly zone, are they still going to shot it down?
Depends on RoE really, if there is some way of making himself known and RoE is pretty strict, then maybe not. We won't know the RoE until much later... the no-fly zone is for any aircraft with libyan registration, so that would include captured aircraft... but maybe visual ID and radio check is part of RoE.
If he hasn't already been downed by his rebel friends.
First strikes are all about starting low on the scale to try to resolve it without escalation.
Intentionally not shock & awe. As the country basically collapses then beyond recovery.
However, I'm not sure how much sharing takes place, or with what speed up and down the chain. I'd imagine it's still today far from ideal. Also reports were up to a few days ago very unreliable, and to put it bluntly, there have to be a certain number of confirmed civilians killed before you interfere in another country's affairs. He bought himself some time with the cease fire.
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