Reactions
Soon afterwards, the French minister of defence, Paul Quilès, announced that the runway at Ouadi Doum had been rendered unusable. Political reactions in France were all supportive of the government, with the exception of those of the French Communist Party. As for foreign reactions, Mitterrand obtained the support of the United States and, as was made clear at the summit of the Francophonie held in Paris from February 17 to 19, of most of the African countries.
Gaddafi's first reaction was to claim that the airstrip had only a civilian purposes and that the attack had caused the death of nine civilians. But the best proof of Gaddafi's determination came the day after the raid when a Libyan Tupolev Tu-22 from Aouzou attacked the airport of N'Djamena. Staying under French radar coverage by flying low over the desert for more than 1,127 km (700 mi), it accelerated to over Mach 1, climbed to 5,030 m (16,503 ft) and dropped three heavy bombs. Despite the considerable speed and height, the attack was extremely precise: two bombs hit the runway, one demolished the taxiway, and the airfield remained closed for several hours as a consequence. The bomber ran into technical problems on its return journey. U.S. early warning reconnaissance planes based in Sudan monitored distress calls sent by the pilot of the Tu-22 that probably crashed before reaching its base at Aouzou (maybe hit by twin-tubes that fired in N'Djamena airport).
Read more about this topic: Ouadi Doum Air Raid
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