AFP, Cairo, 4 Oct 2011 – US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said on Tuesday NATO air raids in Libya will continue as long as there is heavy ground combat between rebels and diehard supporters of ousted strongman Moamer Kadhafi.
‘As long as there is fighting that continues in Libya, I suspect that the NATO mission will continue,’ Panetta told reporters during a visit to Cairo.
When asked how long NATO’s air campaign would last, he said: ‘I think fighting has to end.’
The Pentagon chief said he could not predict when the air campaign would be concluded but expected to have a better sense after discussions in Brussels this week with fellow NATO defence ministers.
Allied air strikes began in March when Kadhafi’s soldiers had rebels on the back foot, and helped tipped the balance in favour of the rebels who overran the capital Tripoli in August.
The poorly trained but now battle-hardened rebels have surrounded Kadhafi loyalists in Sirte, east of Tripoli, and Bani Walid southeast of the capital, with limited success so far in dislodging former regime fighters.
NATO planes struck targets in Sirte on Sunday, but Kadhafi loyalists were still in the fight, raining rockets and rocket-propelled grenades down on rebel positions the following day.
‘Obviously there continues to be fighting by Sirte, by other areas’ and ‘we still don’t know where Kadhafi is,’ Panetta said.
‘And so there still are some question marks with regards to the situation,’ Panetta said in Cairo where he met Egypt’s military ruler Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi.
Panetta, however, said the conflict ‘certainly is moving in the right direction’ and ‘a lot of progress has been made’ since the operation was launched in March.
The US defence chief departed for Brussels after his stop in Cairo to meet NATO defence ministers, with the allied air campaign in Libya — which was recently renewed for 90 days — at the top of the agenda.
In Sirte, hundreds of residents have been fleeing in packed vehicles, with some sitting on top of possessions piled high in the rear of pick-ups.
Civilians pouring out of Sirte said on Tuesday the horror of the battle for the city finally forced them to conquer their fear of the besieging new regime forces and leave.
The exodus comes as a commander of National Transitional Council (NTC) forces besieging the other remaining loyalist bastion of Bani Walid said Kadhafi’s son Seif al-Islam was directing the last stand in the desert oasis.