Posted 3 hours 13 minutes ago
- AFP/BBC/Reuters
Britain offered four Apaches, NATO military officials said. (AFP: Leon Neal)
NATO has stepped up its military action against forces loyal to the Libyan leader Moamar Gaddafi, using attack helicopters for the first time.
The choppers attacked and destroyed two military installations, a radar site and an armed checkpoint near the city of Brega.
NATO has been enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya since March as government forces continue to clash with opposition rebels.
"The use of attack helicopters provides the NATO operation with additional flexibility to track and engage pro-Gaddafi forces who deliberately target civilians and attempt to hide in populated areas," a NATO statement said.
NATO said it deployed British Apache choppers and French Tigres in the attacks launched as part of the aerial campaign to protect Libyan civilians from Gaddafi forces.
Lieutenant General Charles Bouchard, commander in chief of the NATO mission in Libya, said "this success demonstrates the unique possibilities offered" by using combat helicopters.
"We will continue to use these means when and where necessary, with the same precision as in all our missions," he said.
NATO forces "are constantly reviewing their operations and use of available assets, including attack helicopters, to best maintain the momentum and increase the pressure on pro-Gaddafi forces."
At the end of May, Lieutenant General Bouchard said French and British attack helicopters would allow NATO to conduct an "effective and aggressive" mission against Gaddafi forces threatening the civilian population.
"It's an additional capability to pinpoint these vehicles that are much more difficult to see from aircraft at high altitude," he said from his headquarters in Naples, Italy.
France was contributing four Tigre attack helicopters while Britain offered four Apaches, NATO military officials said, adding that the helicopters were being prepared to fly over sea water and desert conditions.
The choppers were based respectively on the helicopter carriers Tonnerre and HMS Ocean off the north African coast. The Tonnerre was also transporting a dozen Gazelle helicopters that are older than the Tigres, an alliance military official said.
Obama under fire
The US House of Representatives, meanwhile, approved a vote that rebuked US president Barack Obama for maintaining a role in the NATO mission while ignoring Congress, but stopped short of calling for an end to the mission.
Under US law, the president must seek congressional authorisation for any military action which lasts longer than two months.
But Mr Obama argues that America's role in the NATO operation to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya is extremely limited.
House Speaker John Boehner says Congress is not afraid to withhold funding for what he says is unauthorised use of the US military.
"This resolution puts the president on notice. He has a chance to get this right. And if he doesn't, Congress will exercise its constitutional authority and we will make it right," he said.
And China has acknowledged for the first time contact with Libya's rebels as Russia prepared to send an envoy to help mediate a settlement to the conflict.
China, a veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council, said its ambassador to Qatar, Zhang Zhiliang, held talks with Mustafa Abdul Jalil of the Libyan rebel National Transitional Council in recent days to discuss the conflict in the oil-rich nation.
"The two sides exchanged views on the Libyan situation," Beijing's foreign ministry spokesman, Hong Lei, said without elaborating on the time and place of the meeting.
Since February, Gaddafi's forces have been embroiled in a battle with rebels looking to put an end to his more than four decades in power.
- AFP/BBC/Reuters
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Tags: unrest-conflict-and-war, france, libya, united-kingdom, england
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