NATO Ending Libya Mission

NATO officially ends its seven-month sea and air campaign in Libya one minute before midnight tonight. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen came to Tripoli to announce that the campaign – which helped remove longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi from power – will end tonight.

“We have been mandated by the United Nations Security Council to protect civilians and that mission has been a great success,” Rasmussen told CNN. “We have prevented a massacre.”

Rasmussen told the BBC that he has talked with the transitional Libyan government, or the NTC, about the country’s future plans.

“I hope that the free, democratic Libya will join us as a partner one day soon; but this is up to you. The future of free Libya is finally firmly in your hands.”

MSNBC reports that the NATO help stopped the Libyan fight from turning into a hazardous situation like Afghanistan. It also says the campaign helped the rebels capture Tripoli from the rulers and eventually end the war.

The head of the NTC, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil expressed gratitude for the campaign.

“NATO operations were successful, with the grace of God and the determination of the fighters,” he told MSNBC. “The strikes were accurate so that civilians were not impacted, the people of Libya can testify to this.”

The U.S. ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice also praised NATO’s mission in an interview with CNN.

“This closes what I think history will judge to be a proud chapter in the Security Council’s history.”

Meanwhile, Gadhafi’s family sees the actions worthy of filing a war crime complaint, according to CNN.

“All of the events that have taken place since February 2011 and the murder of Gadhafi, all of this means we are totally in our right to call upon the International Criminal Court,” a lawyer for the family, Marcel Ceccaldi told CNN.

The Libya campaign started seven months ago in March after the UN Security Council “adopted Resolution 1973, which imposed a no-fly zone in the country’s airspace and authorized member states to take measures to protect civilians,” CNN says. 

Photo by World Economic Forum.