BRUSSELS: NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Thursday said the alliance had agreed to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya "to protect civilians" but not to carry out ground strikes. After days of fraught talks, as NATO member Turkey raised objections to action by the US-led coalition against Moamer Qadhafi's forces, the alliance had finally agreed "to assume responsibility" to enforce the no-fly zone, Rasmussen said.
"We have now decided to enforce the no-fly zone over Libya," he said. Rasmussen said the 28-member alliance would enforce the UN-mandated no-fly zone but would not take part in action to take out pro-Qadhafi military hardware. Asked whether NATO would take overall command of the campaign, the NATO chief said: "What we have decided is that NATO will enforce the no-fly zone. We are considering whether NATO should take on that broader responsibility. But that decision has not been made yet."
"We are taking action as part of a broad international effort to protect civilians against the Qadhafi regime," he said.
"There will be a coalition operation and a NATO operation," he told journalists. Asked by CNN whether strikes against Qadhafi's tanks and artillery would continue to be in the hands of the coalition led by the United States, Britain and France, Rasmussen said, "Yeah."
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