US still main force in anti-Libya strikes: Pentagon

Stealth bomber leading Valiant Shield exercise
Wikimedia Commons image

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States has undertaken the lion's share of coalition military sorties against Libya late Saturday and Sunday, despite NATO formally taking command of operations, Pentagon figures showed.

Of 167 sorties flown between 1930 GMT Saturday and 1500 GMT Sunday, more than half -- some 97 -- used US aircraft, the US Defense Department said.

That figure is only slightly less than the 62 percent of sorties flown by the US planes since Operation Odyssey Dawn got underway on March 19.
The latest Pentagon figures showed some 1,424 missions conducted during the operation so far as it imposes a United Nations Security Council-mandated no-fly zone over Libya.

The international coalition enforcing the no-fly zone, headed by the United States, Britain and France, has struck Kadhafi's defense and air capabilities and sought to protect Libyan civilians.

As rebels pushed towards Tripoli after nine days of Western bombings on Kadhafi forces, NATO ambassadors overcame objections from Turkey and France after days of tense talks and agreed to take control of the campaign.

"Our goal is to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas under threat of attack from the Kadhafi regime," declared NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

"NATO will implement all aspects of the UN resolution. Nothing more, nothing less," he said.

© AFP -- Published at Activist Post with license

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State Dept spokesman quits after slam of Pentagon

Philip Crowley
© AFP/File Nicholas Kamm

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - State Department spokesman Philip Crowley resigned Sunday after slamming the Pentagon's treatment of a US solider suspected of leaking thousands of diplomatic cables and military documents to WikiLeaks as "counter-productive."

"Given the impact of my remarks, for which I take full responsibility, I have submitted my resignation as Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs and Spokesman for the Department of State," Crowley said in a statement released by the State Department.

On Friday, Crowley departed from his characteristic diplomatic language when asked at a forum on new media and diplomacy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, about the United States "torturing" Private First Class Bradley Manning.


Manning, 23, was arrested in June while deployed to Iraq amid suspicions he had passed a trove of secret US government documents to WikiLeaks, the whistle-blowing website which were then published in newspapers around the world.

Crowley said Manning's treatment by the Defense Department, which includes solitary confinement and being forced to sleep naked, "is ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid," BBC reporter Philippa Thomas wrote on her blog.

"Nonetheless Bradley Manning is in the right place," Crowley said, adding "there is sometimes a need for secrets" to advance US diplomatic interests.

Later Friday Obama insisted the Pentagon's treatment of Manning was appropriate.

Last week the US military unveiled 22 additional charges against Manning including the serious offense of "aiding the enemy," which carries a potential death sentence. But the army said he would face possible life in prison.

In his statement Sunday, Crowley said his remarks "were intended to highlight the broader, even strategic impact of discreet actions undertaken by national security agencies every day and their impact on our global standing and leadership."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton noted Crowley's long service to the United States in accepting his resignation.

"(Crowley) has served our nation with distinction for more than three decades, in uniform and as a civilian," she said.

"His service to country is motivated by a deep devotion to public policy and public diplomacy, and I wish him the very best."

Clinton said Michael Hammer, currently deputy spokesman at the state department, will serve as acting spokesman.

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