NATO puts off decision on ending Libya operations
NATO leaders said Thursday that they would continue carrying out airstrikes in Libya and patrolling its coastline because of ongoing resistance from forces loyal to deposed leader Moammar Gaddafi.
NATO’s political leadership said it would end military operations in Libya “soon” but emerged from two days of meetings at the alliance’s headquarters in Belgium without making a clear decision on how to wind down the war.
Although Gaddafi remains in hiding, some U.S. and NATO officials said it would be a mistake to withdraw from Libya as long as fighting continues in Sirte and Bani Walid, two cities still under the control of pro-Gaddafi forces. Gaddafi was driven from power six weeks ago when rebels captured the capital, Tripoli.
“The time to end our mission will come soon,” Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the NATO secretary general, said at a news conference. “We stand ready to terminate it when the political and military conditions are fulfilled.”
Rasmussen said the threat to civilians from Gaddafi loyalists was “fading away,” but he was vague about how and when NATO leaders would decide to their involvement in the conflict…