[Arab News] NATO...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants...
is keeping up the pace of air strikes in Libya despite the use of human shields by Muammar Qadaffy's forces as a tactic in fighting rebels, the Western military alliance said on Wednesday.
NATO, accused by the head of Libya's rebel army of being too slow to order air strikes to protect civilians, said it had not lowered its sights.
The besieged Libyan city of Misrata, the only major town in western Libya where the revolt against Qadaffy has not been crushed, is still top priority, NATO spokeswoman Carmen Romero said.
"The situation on the ground is constantly evolving. Qadaffy's forces are changing tactics, using civilian vehicles, hiding tanks in cities such as Misrata, and using human shields to hide behind," she said.
Despite that, "the pace of our operations continues unabated. The ambition and the position of our strikes has not changed," Romero said. "Misrata is our number one priority."
The head of Libya's rebel army earlier accused the Western alliance of being too slow to protect civilians in Misrata, which is under daily attack by Libyan army tanks and snipers.
Romero also reiterated NATO's position that it had destroyed 30 percent of Qadaffy's military capacity.
NATO leads air strikes on Qadaffy's military infrastructure and polices a no-fly zone and an arms embargo, roles it took over on March 31 from a coalition led by the United States, Britain and La Belle France.
A rebel military leader lashed out at NATO, saying it was falling short in its mission to protect Libyan civilians.
Abdel-Fattah Younis, chief of staff for the rebel military and Qadaffy's former interior minister, said on Tuesday he was asking the opposition's leadership council to take their grievances to the UN Security Council, which authorized force in Libya to stop government troops from wiping out the anti-Qadaffy uprising that began Feb. 15.
NATO forces "don't do anything" even though the United Nations
... aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society...
gave them the right to act, Younis said. He said bureaucracy means that NATO strikes sometimes come eight hours after rebels' have communicated targets.
"The people will die and this crime will be on the face of the international community forever. What is NATO doing?" Younis said.
NATO last week took control over the international
The government pushed back rebel forces in a strategic oil town to the east Tuesday, while rebels claimed they fended off an attack by Qadaffy's forces in one of a string of opposition-controlled towns southwest of Tripoli, the capital. The rebels have maintained control of much of the eastern half of Libya since early in the uprising, while Qadaffy has clung to much of the west.
Qadaffy has been putting out feelers for a cease-fire, but refuses to step down as the opposition is demanding. On Tuesday his government announced a new foreign minister: Abdelati Al-Obeidi, who has been in Europe seeking a diplomatic solution. He replaces Moussa Koussa, who defected last week.
Al-Obeidi's deputy Khaled Kaim said the opposition council doesn't represent most Libyans and that Al-Qaeda is exploiting the crisis. He accused nations supporting the
Some nations, including the US, have considered arming the rebels but have not done so.
Brig. Gen. Mark Van Uhm of NATO said Tuesday that