NATO set to decide when to end Libyan mission

NATO set to decide when to end Libyan mission

NATO's governing body will meet on Friday to decide when and how to end the seven-month bombing campaign in Libya, a military operation whose success has helped reinvigorate the Cold War alliance.

NATO's Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said that the end of the campaign "has now moved much closer",  hailing the success of the mission and noting that it demonstrated that the alliance continues to play an "indispensable" role in confronting current and future security challenges.

Air-strikes

NATO warplanes have flown about 26,000 sorties, including over 9,600 strike missions.

They destroyed Libya's air defenses and over 1,000 tanks, vehicles and guns, as well as Gaddafi's command and control networks.

The daily airstrikes finally broke the stalemate that developed after Gaddafi's initial attempts failed to crush the rebellion that broke out in February.

In August, the rebels began advancing on Tripoli, with the NATO warplanes providing close air support and destroying any attempts by the defenders to block them.

End of the line

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told France-Info radio on Friday that the operation seems to be at an end.
"We can say that the military operation is over, that all of Libyan territory is under the control of the (interim government) and that, aside from several transitional measures in the week ahead, the NATO operation has reached the end of its term," he said.

Mission incomplete

Britain has suggested that NATO may not immediately complete its mission in Libya, wary over the potential reprisal attacks by remaining Gaddafi loyalists.

British Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said: "NATO will now meet to decide when the mission is complete, and once we are satisfied that there is no further threat to the Libyan civilians and the Libyans are content NATO will then arrange to wind up the operation".

British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and US President Barack Obama also discussed the NATO campaign in a video conference late Thursday.
"They discussed the need to maintain the NATO-led operation while a threat remained to civilian life," a spokeswoman for Cameron's office said, on customary condition of anonymity.

AP/Ehimen/Ekata