Britain said on Tuesday it would send military officers to help Libyan rebels organise, a step likely to anger critics who say the West is abusing a UN resolution to use force to protect civilians. London said it would send officers, believed to number about a dozen, to Libya to advise rebels on how to improve their organisation and communications, but would not train them to fight or arm them.
With the Libyan civil war risking getting bogged down in a long stalemate, Western powers are searching for ways to bolster the rebels, whose fighting efforts have been disorganised and lacked leadership. Peter Bone, a member of parliament from Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party, raised concerns over the move and called for the recall of parliament, on a break, to debate it. "We are now looking at regime change and we are clearly backing the rebels. We seem to be taking sides in a civil war. That may well be right but it's not for the government to decide, it's for parliament to decide," Bone told Sky News.