British army on standby for Libya

LONDON, March 5 (UPI) -- A British army battalion based in Scotland has been placed on standby to deploy to Libya within hours, Defense Ministry officials said Saturday.

The news emerged as various Western countries moved military ships and aircraft towards North Africa amid concerns the mounting civil unrest could become a civil war.

British defense officials said some 600 infantry members of Scotland's Royal Regiment known as the Black Watch had been put on 24-hour notice to deploy, The Daily Telegraph said.

The newspaper said defense officials stressed the purpose of alerting the battalion was to prepare them to serve in a humanitarian role to protect civilians.

The anti-government protests calling for the ouster of military dictator Moammar Gadhafi that began last month have been bloody and deadly, but tolls of deaths and injuries vary greatly because of government-imposed media restrictions.

Gadhafi has so far ignored calls from the international community to stop using the military against the country's citizens.