Allies Drawn In to Libya Conflict as Rebels Fail to Capitalize on NATO Aid

[Purveyor]

April 21 (Bloomberg) -- NATO and its allies are being drawn more deeply into an intervention they had expected would quickly topple Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi, as the deaths of two reporters and fighting in the west underscored the conflict’s violence.

The U.S. announced yesterday it will provide $25 million in aid to Libya’s disorganized and poorly equipped rebels, while Italy, France and the U.K. dispatched military advisers. The rebels, who have also received light weapons from Qatar, have failed to capitalize on an alliance-led air campaign that French President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged yesterday to intensify.

“We need to step up the pressure on every front,” U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron told BBC radio today. North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led forces yesterday hit two heavy equipment transporters, three armored vehicles and an ammunition storage site near Tripoli, two tanks, a communication tower and a radar station near Misrata and a tank and two rocket launchers near Zintan, the alliance said in an e-mailed statement.

The uprising aimed at ending Qaddafi’s 42-year rule, which began in mid-February, has ground to a military stalemate near the central oil-port city of Brega. Residents of the rebel-held western city of Misrata, besieged for more than six weeks, suffer daily shelling by Qaddafi’s forces that a United Nations official said yesterday may constitute war crimes.

Western Libyan Fighting

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http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aDXr4R3lhDrk&pos=8

[MacNfries]

1. Have you seen a closeup of these so-called Libyan rebels?

A couple weeks ago a TV news article specifically focused on these "rebels" and who they actually were. The reporter was discussing how underarmed and equipped the rebels were, and was talking to several of the rebels. The one I found so absurd, however, was the interview with a rebel that was running around, carrying a plastic toy machine gun ... I swear to God ... a plastic toy gun. Its no wonder they want the NATO to do their fighting for them.

[provis99]

2. a perfect example of Mission Creep.

of course NATO will have to do more of the fighting; why would the rebels risk themselves if they can get NATO to do their fighting for them?

[Baclava]

3. The "'kinetic military action" drags on.

Oh, wait - are we allowed to call it a war now?