NATO Escalates Libya Campaign After Rebels Criticize Mission
April 06, 2011, 2:12 PM EDTBy Patrick Donahue
(Adds U.K. strikes in second paragraph, analyst quotes in fifth paragraph. See EXTRA and MET for more on unrest in the Mideast and North Africa.)
April 6 (Bloomberg) -- NATO escalated its air campaign over Libya a day after a rebel commander criticized the alliance for not doing enough to stop Muammar Qaddafi’s artillery attacks that pushed rebels into retreat.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization jets planned to fly 198 missions over Libya today, an increase over 155 yesterday, NATO chief spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said in a statement. The “operational tempo has increased,” she said, without specifying how many sorties were tasked for ground targets. There were 66 “strike sorties” yesterday -- including 12 U.K. attacks on Qaddafi’s tanks and armored vehicles -- up from 58 on April 4, according to NATO and U.K government reports.
As a former U.S. congressman arrived in Tripoli for talks with Qaddafi, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe called the situation on the ground “confused” and said coalition pilots are having difficulty targeting because both sides use similar pickup trucks.
NATO is slow “in responding to our instructions” on targets and failing to “give us what we need,” Abdel Fattah Younes, head of the rebel army, said at a press conference yesterday in Benghazi. Juppe’s comments, on France Info radio, indicate NATO hasn’t established effective procedures with the rebels for ground designation of targets. It may also reflect the absence of U.S. A-10 Thunderbolt II and AC-130 Spectre gunships since the U.S. withdrew from attack missions.
Regime Change
The U.S. and its allies need to more aggressively target Qaddafi’s forces as part of an unspoken regime-change policy and to avoid an “unstable stalemate,” Anthony Cordesman, a military analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, wrote in a commentary on the research group’s website.
“This means a more obvious ‘taking sides,’ it means killing Qaddafi forces the moment they move or concentrate, rather than waiting for them to attack, striking Qaddafi’s military and security facilities, and finding excuses to strike his compound,” he wrote.
Oil Slides
Crude oil futures pared gains after a U.S. government report showed a smaller-than-forecast decrease in supplies of gasoline. Crude oil for May delivery slid 21 cents to $108.13 a barrel at 1:07 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The rebels were preparing to make their first international oil sale as the tanker Equator, which can carry 1 million barrels, departed the Marsa al Hariga terminal near the port of Tobruk in rebel-held eastern Libya, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.
The Equator arrived yesterday and is now signaling Singapore as its destination, the data show. The cargo may bring more than $100 million for the rebels. The rebels’ national council said April 1 that it had reached a deal to have Qatar help market Libyan oil, with proceeds going toward food, fuel, medicine and other uses
The rebels retreated yesterday under heavy fire from the oil port of Brega, about 150 miles (241 kilometers) south of Benghazi. Rebels and loyalists have been waging running battles on the coastal road between the Qaddafi stronghold of Sirte and the rebel-held city of Ajdabiyah in the past six weeks.
More U.K. Jets
The U.S. military pulled out its fighter jets after an April 4 mission over Libya, carrying out a pledge by President Barack Obama to hand over most military missions to NATO and its allies. The U.S. is supporting operations with surveillance and other specialized aircraft as well as navy ships.
Britain said today that it has shifted four Typhoon jets from no-fly-zone duties to ground-attack missions, following the addition yesterday of four ground-attack Eurofighter Tornado jets. The U.K. “currently has 16 ground-attack aircraft under NATO command,” the statement said. “This meets present operational requirements.”
NATO’s Lungescu said today in a BBC television interview that a third of Qaddafi’s military assets “have been destroyed” and that loyalists are now hiding their armor from NATO in cities such as Misrata. “They are using human shields in effect,” she said.
Siege of Misrata
The rebels’ Younes was particularly critical of the 28- member alliance for failing to stop Qaddafi’s weeks-long siege of Misrata, the rebel-held western city near Tripoli that has been the scene of repeated attacks. A resident of Misrata speaking by phone said that tank shelling had abated.
“It’s been relatively quiet today, however there are some clashes in the center of the city,” said the resident, who identified himself as Mountasser. “Tank shelling has stopped but snipers are around.”
The U.S. and European governments have repeatedly said that Qaddafi, 68, must leave and have rejected diplomatic overtures from the Libyan government, which on April 4 called for an “international dialogue” to resolve the conflict.
Curt Weldon, a former U.S. congressman, plans to meet Qaddafi today to persuade the Libyan leader to relinquish power, he wrote in a New York Times article. Weldon is leading a private delegation to Tripoli at the invitation of a Qaddafi aide.
“I’ve met him enough times to know that it will be very hard to simply bomb him into submission,” Weldon wrote. He proposed a United Nations-monitored cease-fire and negotiations with “pragmatic and reform-minded” leaders within the regime, possibly including Qaddafi’s son, Seif al-Islam.
Letter to Obama
Qaddafi sent a message to Obama, the official Libyan news agency reported today. The message follows the “withdrawal of America from the colonial crusader coalition of aggression against Libya,” it said, without giving further details.
The U.S. and NATO need to escalate a policy of “regime kill,” said Cordesman. Additional steps he recommends include covertly arming and advising rebel forces as well as sending Special Forces with laser illuminators to designate ground targets. In addition, the alliance will need to tolerate “more civilian losses and collateral damage in the short run --knowing this is likely to reduce total civilian suffering in comparison with any stalemate, Qaddafi victory, or low-level struggle.”
--With assistance from Gregory Viscusi in Paris, Alaric Nightingale in London, Massoud A. Derhally in Beirut, Flavia Krause-Jackson in Rome and Zahra Hankir, Zainab Fattah and Tamara Walid in Dubai. Editors: Terry Atlas, Steven Komarow
To contact the reporter on this story: Patrick Donahue in Berlin at pdonahue1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net; Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net
