[ 2011-06-08 ]

Tuesday saw one of Nato's heaviest daytime raids on Tripoli, with more than 20 air strikes

Nato reviews Libya air campaign
Nato defence ministers are meeting in Brussels to
review the results of two months of air strikes in
Libya, as the alliance steps up its campaign.

More explosions were heard overnight in the
capital, Tripoli, after a day of intensified
bombardment on Tuesday.

Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi has vowed to
remain in the country "dead or alive", saying
martyrdom would be a "million times better" than
surrender.

He urged supporters to defy Nato and gather at his
Tripoli compound.

Meanwhile, China and Russia are involved in
separate diplomatic efforts to try to end the
conflict.

Libyan Foreign Minister Abdul Ati al-Obeidi has
been visiting Beijing, and a Russian envoy is in
eastern Libya's rebel stronghold of Benghazi to
meet opposition leaders.

Daytime raids

While Wednesday's Nato meeting is likely to centre
around maintaining the pressure on Col Gaddafi, it
will also focus on what happens when the air
campaign ends and during any subsequent transition
period, says BBC diplomatic correspondent Jonathan
Marcus at the bloc's Brussels headquarters.

Last week, Nato agreed to extend its air
operations over Libya for a further 90 days, as it
increased the scope and intensity of its
UN-mandated campaign to protect civilians.

Since then, British and French attack helicopters
have gone into action and command centres in
Tripoli have been pounded.

On Tuesday Nato carried out its heaviest daytime
raids of its nine-week campaign on what it said
were command and control centres in and around the
capital, with more than 20 air strikes by
low-flying jets.

With the increased intensity of its attacks, Nato
is sending a clear message to the Libyan leader
that the strikes will continue until he hands over
power, says the BBC's Wyre Davies in Tripoli.

The Libyan government acknowledged that military
installations belonging to the Republican Guard
had been targeted, while Libyan television
reported Col Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound had
also been hit.

The whereabouts of the Libyan leader remain
unknown, says our correspondent in Tripoli; Col
Gaddafi and his sons reportedly spend each night
in different locations to evade the Nato air
strikes.

But he remains defiant, reportedly rejecting an
African Union offer to take refuge in an unnamed
African nation.

In an audio address on Libyan state TV late on
Tuesday, the Libyan leader called on his
supporters to rally at Bab al-Aziziya, pledging
that the Libyan people would soon defeat their
enemies.

"The Libyan people will march, in the direction of
the east or the west, or to any place where there
are armed gangs to strip them of their arms
without fighting," he said.

Addressing Nato, he added: "Your planes will not
be able to stop these marches of the millions, nor
will the armed gangs that you support be able to
resist for even a minute in the face of these
marches".

But US President Barack Obama said there had been
"significant" progress in Nato's mission to
protect Libyan civilians, hundreds of whom have
been killed since anti-government protests began
in mid-February.

"What you are seeing across the country is an
inexorable trend of the regime forces being pushed
back, being incapacitated," he told a news
conference after talks with German Chancellor
Angela Merkel.

"I think it is just a matter of time before
Gaddafi goes."

On Tuesday, the head of the High-Level African
Union Panel on Libya, Mauritanian President
Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, also said Col Gaddafi's
departure had "become necessary".

Libyan Labour Minister al-Amin Manfur became the
latest senior Libyan official to defect, diplomats
with Libya's mission to the UN in Geneva said.

Staff in Libya's UN mission in Geneva collectively
defected in February.

Mr Manfur, who had been representing Libya at the
annual meeting of the International Labour
Organisation, was said to be on his way to the
rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

Source - BBC

... go Back