NATO hopes to finish Libya campaign within next 3 months

PanARMENIAN.Net - NATO can finish its air campaign in Libya within the next three months, the Canadian operations commander said Thursday, September 22, as remnants of the ousted regime are now isolated in three pockets of the country.

Asked for an assessment a day after NATO allies extended the mission by another 90 days, Lt.-Gen. Charles Bouchard told a press briefing: "I'm highly confident we can complete this mission well within this timeframe."

Bouchard said resistance among forces loyal to ousted dictator Muammar Gaddafi was restricted to "only three isolated pockets" — Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte with a strip of coastal access; an area in the town of Bani Walid to the west; and another section around Al Fugaha to the south.

However, after a six-month-old air war, the Canadian general said progress towards NATO's final goal would be largely "based on NTC forces on ground . . . and also on the will of the regime forces to continue." His comments came after fighters backing the National Transitional Council, Libya's new rulers, said Thursday they had to halt an assault on one key pro-Gaddafi cluster for a week owing to a lack of ammunition and supplies.

However, Bouchard added that Kahafi forces "are no longer able to conduct co-ordinated operations throughout Libya," while the number of people at risk from pro-Gaddafi military action had fallen to about 200,000 people. The big coastal cities of Tripoli, Benghazi and Misrata were all now "back to normal," and the "rule of law and order has been restored," he said.

As a result, despite complaints on Wednesday from Human Rights Watch about conditions in border camps for refugees from the fighting, Bouchard said NATO did not consider the country to be suffering from a humanitarian crisis.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Wednesday that warplanes would stay in the air as long as Libyan civilians are under threat but "not a day longer" than required, and that it could be called off "at any time."

The current 90-day mandate was due to expire on Sept. 27, AFP reported.