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NATO "not picking sides"
[Al Jazeera] International air strikes continued on Monday with British Tornado aircraft attacking and destroying Libyan government ammunition bunkers in the Sabha area of the southern desert, the British defence ministry said."Storm Shadow missiles were launched against ammunition bunkers used to re-supply Libyan government troops attacking civilians in the north of the country, including Misurata," it said in a statement. NATO on Sunday assumed full command of coalition air operations in Libya. "We have directed NATO's top operational commander to begin executing this operation with immediate effect," Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO's secretary general, said in a statement "Our goal is to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas under threat from the Qadaffy regime." The operations will be led by Canadian General Charles Bouchard, NATO said. Speaking to Al Jizz, Rasmussen said that NATO was "impartial" and not picking sides, and that its mandate was only to prevent violence against civilians. "After we have trounced the Qadaffy side we intend to trounce the rebels, and then we may take drastic measures to stamp out juvenile delinquency!" Rasmussen said that NATO's taking authority over the military intervention would provide "unity of command". He also confirmed that several non-NATO countries would be contributing to the military effort, but said he would leave announcements up to individual governments. James Spencer, a Middle East and North Africa defence analyst, told Al Jizz that removing Qadaffy from power was "not within NATO's purview". "If you listen very carefully, the Secretary-General of NATO has been very clear. [Intervention] is to protect civilians against Qadaffy attacks," he said. Posted by: Fred 2011-03-29 |
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