Report: NATO choppers for Libya
Via Reuters, a report that NATO is dispatching helicopters to Libya: Western forces plan to use attack helicopters in Libya to help break a military stalemate with forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, a French diplomatic source said on Monday. Continued shelling of the rebel-held western outpost of Misrata illustrated the scale of the problem facing ...
Via Reuters, a report that NATO is dispatching helicopters to Libya:
Via Reuters, a report that NATO is dispatching helicopters to Libya:
Western forces plan to use attack helicopters in Libya to help break a military stalemate with forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, a French diplomatic source said on Monday.
Continued shelling of the rebel-held western outpost of Misrata illustrated the scale of the problem facing rebel forces and NATO. Rebels said Gaddafi forces were trying to advance into the long-besieged city under cover of rocket and mortar shells.
A rebel spokesman said forces loyal to Gaddafi also shelled the rebel-held town of Zintan and massed troops close to another town in the mountainous region bordering Tunisia, intensifying operations on the war’s western front.
The French daily Le Figaro reported that 12 helicopters, which could launch more accurate attacks on pro-Gaddafi forces and targets than fixed wing aircraft, were shipped out to Libya on the French warship Tonnerre on May 17.
The story does not make clear where the helicopters would be based or what kind of ground contingent will support them. No doubt many readers will recall that NATO’s 1999 Kosovo operation had its own helicopter drama. Then NATO commander Wesley Clark requested American Apaches early in the conflict, but a combination of Pentagon hesitance, Macedonian reluctance and to host them, and logistical delays kept the Apaches out of action for most of the conflict.
Update: Now the Guardian is reporting that the British will send their own attack helicopters. Still no word on where they will be based or whether a ground component in Libya will support them.
British officials revealed the plans to deploy the Apaches after France announced it was sending attack helicopters to Libya. Britain and France clearly hope their use, and revealing the intention to use them, will deter pro-Gaddafi forces.
Britain and other Nato countries have insisted they will not deploy troops "on the ground" in Libya – a move that would be strongly opposed by most Nato countries, including the US and by those Arab countries in favour of the air campaign against Gaddafi’s forces.
David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist
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