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NATO allies are in a hurry to bring the air war in Libya to a victorious end but are having to carry on with a shrinking alliance after Norway withdrew its jets and Italy pulled an aircraft carrier. Norway’s departure this weekend leaves the 28-nation military club with combat planes from seven nations instead of eight to finish a job begun four months ago that some hoped would last just weeks. And with Moamer Kadhafi refusing to step down, allied tactics and diplomatic messages too are under adjustment: the United States, France and Britain indicated in recent days the dictator...

NATO says its warplanes have bombed Libyan state TV satellite transmitters because they were being used to incite violence and threaten civilians. A statement says the strike early Saturday "will reduce the regime's ability to oppress civilians, while (preserving) television broadcast infrastructure that will be needed after the conflict." NATO said Moammar Gadhafi's inflammatory broadcasts have been designed to mobilize his supporters. The attempt to silence the government's TV broadcasts comes at a sensitive time for Libya's rebels, who appear to be in disarray after the death of their chief military commander.

<p>Libya’s rebels were in disarray on Friday after the mysterious killing of their leading military commander triggered fears that opposition fighters battling to oust Col Muammar Gaddafi could instead turn their weapons on each other.</p> <p>Units loyal to Gen Abdel Fattah Younes, who was shot dead on Thursday, reportedly abandoned the rebel front line near the oil town of Brega and poured into the opposition capital of Benghazi to avenge their commander’s death.</p>

While the outcome of NATO’s intervention in Libya is still uncertain, the ongoing drift toward a negotiated solution is fraught with potentially debilitating problems for the Western alliance. Ousting Qaddafi remains a possibility, and could have been achieved much earlier with swift and decisive action, but the prospects for a clear NATO victory are now quite uncertain. The collapse of NATO’s resolve came in several stages, with the seeds planted right at the outset of the military action. First, President Obama signaled hesitancy and weakness by waiting until Qaddafi’s forces had nearly taken Benghazi , the rebels’ key stronghold, and...

Libya is ready to hold more talks with the United States and with rebels trying to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi, but the Libyan leader will not bow to demands he quit, a government spokesman said. Moussa Ibrahim said Libyan officials had a "productive dialogue" with U.S. counterparts last week in a rare meeting that followed American recognition of the rebel government that hopes to end Gaddafi's 41-year rule. "Other meetings in the future ... will help solve Libyan problems," the spokesman told reporters in Tripoli late on Friday. "We are willing to talk to the Americans more." He said Gaddafi would...

A deadly bombing that killed at least seven in Oslo on Friday can be viewed as a response to Norway's participation in NATO-led military campaign against Libya, Russian top political experts said. At least 92 people were killed in two separate attacks in Norway on Friday. Seven people reported to be killed in a bomb explosion at a government headquarters in Oslo and 85 were killed in a shooting at a youth summer camp on the Utoya Island, near the capital. Norway, which is a NATO member, could have been targeted because of its participation in the military campaign against...

Libyan ruler Muammar al-Qaddafi's troops have boobytrapped petroleum installations in the strategic oil port of Brega so they can be blown up if his regime loses the town, a top rebel official said Thursday. Mahmoud Jibril, the rebels' diplomatic chief, also said Qaddafi's forces have boobytrapped oil fields. He did not state which fields. While Brega is a key oil processing and shipment hub, the fields that feed it lie far to the south in the Libyan desert.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) assumed command and control over the western-led intervention in the Libyan civil war four months ago with three stated military missions: enforce an arms embargo, enforce a no-fly-zone, and protect civilians and civilian populated areas. As I have noted often on this blog, NATO has selectively enforced the arms embargo by looking the other way when the rebels were caught red handed violating it. Furthermore, after NATO ally France was exposed by Le Figaro for violating the arms embargo by air-dropping rocket launchers, machine guns, and anti-tank grendaes to Libyan rebels, NATO Secretary General...

Recent briefings in Brussels and London on Operation Unified Protector reveal that attack helicopters provided by France and the UK are now making key contributions to NATO-led operations over Libya, which has been extended until the end of September. British AH-64 Apaches plus French Tigers and Gazelles have destroyed more than 300 targets since their introduction on June 4. Flying at night, they have provided “a valuable psychological and cognitive effect,” according to one British Army officer. The helicopters’ mix of weapons (Hellfire or HOT missiles, rockets and guns) might be more suited to attacking light vehicles and control points...

Rebels say they have retaken oil town, as Russia slams US for recognisng their leadership as legitimate government. Libyan rebels have claimed victory against troops loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, the country's leader, inside the eastern port town of Brega. The rebels said Gaddafi's troops were retreating west towards the town of Ras Lanuf. Brega, which is 750km east of Tripoli, the capital, has changed hands several times since the uprising against Gaddafi began in February. Shamsiddin Abdulmolah, a rebel spokesman, told the AFP news agency that the fighters had circled the town, a key oil export terminal with a refinery...

<p>NATO warplanes destroyed the radar antenna at Tripoli International Airport on Monday, the alliance said, claiming the system was being used for military purposes by Moammar Gadhafi's regime.</p> <p>A statement said the air traffic control radar at the civilian airport was tracking NATO jets and the providing information to Libyan air defenses.</p>

Britain has asked the US to step up its support for the Nato mission in Libya, amid continuing doubts over how the conflict against Colonel Muammer Gaddafi’s forces can be brought to an end. Officials have told the Financial Times that Liam Fox, UK defence secretary, asked Leon Panetta, his new US counterpart, for more help with intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and aerial refuelling. The two men spoke in a phone call last week. The request leaves the Obama administration facing a choice between disappointing its ally’s call for help and potentially angering the US Congress, which is increasingly sceptical about...

Fighting between Libyan rebels and government troops raged around the eastern Libyan oil town of Brega throughout the weekend as NATO warplanes launched a sustained pre-dawn raid on Tripoli's eastern suburbs. Distant explosions shook windows in central Tripoli for more than an hour during the raid, launched about 1 a.m. Sunday. NATO said later that the targets were warehouses full of Libyan tanks, troop carriers and ammunition in Tajoura, about 16 kilometers (10 miles) from the city's center. The Western alliance has been bombarding Libya since late March a U.N. mandate to protect civilians from forces loyal to longtime strongman...

The UK Royal Air Force has provided a new update on its combat activities in Libya, and announced plans to boost its commitment of fast jets to the NATO campaign to 22 aircraft. Twelve Panavia Tornado GR4s and six Eurofighter Typhoons are currently supporting operation Unified Protector from Gioia del Colle air base in Italy, with the combination having flown more than 1,100 sorties and almost 2,400h by earlier this month. Speaking at the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford in the UK on 15 July, Air Vice Marshal Greg Bagwell, air officer commanding the service’s 1 Group organisation,...

Recognition by U.S. and other Western nations could unlock billions of dollars in frozen Libyan funds Rebel leaders won recognition as the legitimate government of Libya from the United States and other world powers on Friday in a major boost to the rebels' faltering campaign to oust Muammer Gadhafi. Western nations said they also planned to increase the military pressure on Gadhafi's forces to press him to give up power after 41 years at the head of the North African state. Recognition of the rebels, announced by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at a meeting in Turkey of the international...

The U.S. Air Force has deployed its bombers like never before in the Libya campaign. Wired picked up a story released by Air Force Magazine detailing a flight made this spring by two B1 bombers from South Dakota to Libya carrying ninety-eight, 500 pound bombs. During 24 hours of combat time over four days, the bombers destroyed nearly 100 targets. The B1s were chosen on top of NATO's combined air fleet because each one carries around 24,000 pounds of Joint Direct Attack Munitions and Laser guided JDAMs. To achieve equal destruction would have required dozens of NATO jets.

A French minister said on Sunday it was time for Libya's rebels to negotiate with Muammar Gaddafi's government, but Washington said it stood firm in its belief that the Libyan leader cannot stay in power. The diverging messages from two leading members of the Western coalition opposing Gaddafi hinted at the strain the alliance is under after more than three months of air strikes that have cost billions of dollars and failed to produce the swift outcome its backers had expected. French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet signaled growing impatience with the progress of the conflict when he said the rebels...

Scenes from the front line near Misrata, as the rebels push towards Zlitan Continue reading the main story Libya Crisis After more than six weeks of stalemate, the rebels have in recent days pushed back the forces of Col Muammar Gaddafi, despite rocket and mortar fire. Progress is slow and the rebels have taken heavy casualties, but they say morale is high. The capital remains some 200km (125 miles) away. Digging in Accompanied by a fighter by the name of Ali, we drove several kilometres beyond the entrenched positions that had, for the past month and a half, constituted the...

<p>Colonels and commanders who defected from Libya's military attended a ceremony in June to proclaim support for the revolution.</p> <p>RUJBAN, Libya — For months now, military leaders in the rebel capital, Benghazi, have boldly predicted lightning advances by their fighters and an imminent rout of the forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in Tripoli that would finally snuff out his brutal four-decade rule.</p>

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on Friday threatened Europe with retaliation for a NATO-led military campaign, saying he will send hundreds of soldiers to launch attacks there. "Hundreds of Libyans will martyr in Europe," Gaddafi told a multi-thousand-strong crowd in Sabha some 500 miles south of the capital Tripoli in a speech shown on national television, adding that NATO will regret "when the war moves to Europe."