Nato agreed today to a three-month extension of its air-and-sea campaign in Libya as the country's new rulers try to dislodge well-armed Gadafy loyalists holding out in several towns.
The agreement to extend the United Nations-mandated mission, which Nato took over on March 31st, came at a meeting of ambassadors of the 28 Nato states in Brussels, a Nato diplomat said.
The current operations mandate was due to expire on September 27th, and it was the second 90-day extension to the mission to protect civilians that has involved a campaign of air strikes and a naval mission to enforce a UN arms embargo against ousted leader Muammar Gadafy government.
"We are all pretty clear we are in the final stages of the old regime's ability to threaten civilians," another Nato diplomat said.
"But for some time now everyone has been united behind the idea that we need to keep the mission going as long as civilians are under threat and we still see civilians are under threat from actions on the ground."
Eight of the 28 Nato nations have taken part in air strikes since the mission began and have flown 23,350 sorties, including 8,751 strike sorties against targets such as command centres, armoured vehicles and missile sites.
Fourteen ships under Nato command are patrolling the central Mediterranean Sea to enforce a U.N. arms embargo. Nato has so far suffered no casualties in the mission.
Libya's new rulers are trying to dislodge well-armed Gadafy loyalists from several towns and have yet to start a countdown toward writing a constitution and holding elections.
Col Gadafy's opponents said today they had captured most of one of his last strongholds in a boost to an administration struggling to assert full control over the fractured country.
Sabha - deep in the Sahara desert - had been holding out along with Bani Walid and the deposed Libyan leaders' hometown Sirte since the fall of the capital Tripoli a month ago.
Libya's de facto rulers won expressions of support from Washington, the African Union and South Africa yesterday, and its new flag flew for the first time at the United Nations.
But the National Transitional Council, still based in the eastern city of Benghazi, has faced questions about whether it can unify a country divided on tribal and local lines.
Reuters