‘Delays under NATO’s command proving deadly for Libyan rebels’
April 5th, 2011 - 1:28 pm ICT by ANIBrega (Libya), Apr 5(ANI): A senior Libyan rebel leader has criticized NATO for bureaucratic delays that he said were putting civilians’ lives at risk and complicating rebel efforts to fight dictator Muammar al-Gaddafi’s forces.
“There’s a delay in reacting and lack of response to what’s going on on the ground, and many civilians have died, and they couldn’t react to protect them,” the New York Times quoted Ali al-Essawi, the foreign policy director of the Transitional National Council, as saying.
Essawi said the problems began after NATO took charge of the air campaign from the United States, Britain and France.
“They took the command, they will make it long,” Essawi said.
Earlier, the US military had withdrawn its fighter jets from the international air campaign to protect civilians in the country.
The US had planned to halt combat missions and Tomahawk cruise missile launches at the weekend, but accepted a NATO request to continue the operations for another 48 hours until Monday. (ANI)
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Tags: air campaign, ali, another 48 hours, bureaucratic delays, civilians, combat missions, cruise missile, dictator, fighter jets, foreign policy, libya, muammar al gaddafi, nato, new york times, policy director, rebel leader, rebels, risk