Spain will take part in establishing a no-fly zone in Libya with a tanker aircraft and four F-18 fighter jets that will carry out air patrol missions.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero announced Saturday that Spain will take part in establishing a no-fly zone in Libya with a tanker aircraft and four F-18 fighter jets that will carry out air patrol missions. They were to fly Saturday afternoon to an air base in Italy.

Spain will also help impose an international arms embargo on the Moammar Gadhafi regime with an F-100 frigate, a submarine and an aircraft for maritime surveillance.

Zapatero made the announcement at a press conference in the residence of the Spanish ambassador to Paris, after taking part, along with the head of Spain’s defense high command, Gen. Jose Julio Rodriguez, in a summit organized by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to coordinate military intervention against the Moammar Gadhafi regime.

“Spain assumes its responsibility to enforce the United Nations resolution...and assumes its responsibility to protect the Libyan people,” he said in support of the decision for a coalition of nations to intervene in the North African country.

The premier said that the four Spanish F-18s that Spain will contribute to establishing a no-fly zone would take off for Italy Saturday afternoon and “will likely be under coalition orders tomorrow.”

Meanwhile, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi threatened allied forces with a military response and said Saturday that the Mediterranean and North Africa have become “a war zone,” in an audio message aired on state television.

At the same time, news that Gadhafi’s hometown of Sirte was under attack by missiles and the international coalition’s air operations were reported by Libya’s official news agency Jana.

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