NATO: ‘Game over’ for Gaddafi

AP
BRUSSELS

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen
NATO warplanes have hit more than 600 Libyan tanks and guns and nearly 800 ammunition stores since the alliance took over command of the Libyan campaign, the alliance’s secretary-general said Wednesday.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen also confirmed he would meet July 13 with a delegation of Libya’s National Transitional Council headed by its diplomatic chief Mahmoud Jibril.
Fogh Rasmussen said the near-100 day bombing campaign had accomplished other significant results, including blocking Libyan Moammar Gaddafi’s efforts to reassert control over rebel-held parts of the country.
“The momentum is against Gaddafi, his economic strength to sustain war is declining, his generals and ministers are deserting, the international community has turned against him,” he told reporters in Brussels. “For Gaddafi, the game is over.”
“Since the operation began, we have damaged or destroyed over 2,700 legitimate military targets,” including more than 600 tanks and artillery pieces and nearly 800 ammunition stores and bunkers, he said.

He said NATO had seen in recent weeks some advances by opposition forces in the west, but cautioned that it was not clear how far they could progress.

Fogh Rasmussen’s assessment comes at a time when several participants in the war have indicated they may start reducing their involvement.

NATO’s campaign was originally intended to deliver a sharp, devastating military blow that would allow the opposition to quickly oust his regime. But with the campaign dragging on inconclusively, there have been increasing international calls for a negotiated end to the war.

The alliance’s resolve also appears to be fraying, with some governments facing growing public opposition to the war.

NATO took over command of the initial, US-led attacks on Libya on March 31. The airstrikes have now lasted longer than the 78-day bombing of Serbia in 1999, the only other such aerial bombing campaign the alliance has undertaken.

During that war, NATO claimed to have destroyed more than 400 Serbian tanks and armored personnel carriers. But the alliance’s own postwar tally showed that only about two dozen tanks and APCs had in fact been hit.

Fogh Rasmussen acknowledged that despite the losses, Gaddafi’s forces retain significant military capability.

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