43
Rebel leader: NATO not doing enough
AP
Photo
Libyan rebel military leader Abdel-Fattah Younis speaks to the media at a hotel in Benghazi, Libya Tuesday, April 5, 2011. Younis lashed out at NATO saying it's not doing enough to protect opponents of Moammar Gadhafi and complained about what he said is an overly bureaucratic process that means NATO takes hours to respond to events on the battlefield.
Associated Press
BENGHAZI, Libya
A rebel military leader lashed out at NATO on Tuesday, saying it was falling short in its mission to protect Libyan civilians. The alliance said ruler Moammar Gadhafi’s forces position heavy weapons in populated areas, preventing some airstrikes.
Abdel-Fattah Younis, chief of staff for the rebel military and Gadhafi’s former interior minister, said he was asking the opposition’s leadership council to take their grievances to the U.N. Security Council, which authorized the use of force in Libya to stop Gadhafi from wiping out the uprising that began Feb. 15.
NATO forces “don’t do anything” even though the United Nations gave them the right to act, Younis said. He complained that NATO could take eight hours to respond to events on the battlefield.
“The people will die, and this crime will be on the face of the international community forever. What is NATO doing?” Younis said.
NATO last week took control over the international airstrikes that began March 19 as a U.S.-led mission.
Gadhafi has been putting out feelers for a cease-fire but refuses to step down as the opposition is demanding.
The rebels have maintained control of much of the eastern half of Libya since early in the uprising, while Gadhafi has clung to much of the west. Misrata, which Gadhafi’s forces have besieged for weeks, is the only major rebel-controlled western city, though the opposition also holds several smaller towns in a line southwest of the capital near the border with Tunisia.
Brig. Gen. Mark Van Uhm of NATO said Tuesday that airstrikes so far have destroyed 30 percent of Gadhafi’s military capacity.