US Fighters Still Bombing Libya Air Defenses: Official

Libyan rebels flash the V-sign in Ajdabiya  © AFP Marwan Naamani

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US fighter jets are still carrying out bombing raids on Libya’s air defenses, the Pentagon said Wednesday, days after saying American combat aircraft had withdrawn from NATO operations.

Spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan told reporters “we have fighter aircraft that NATO has, that they can use as part of the air tasking order for suppression of air defense missions, and they have conducted some of those missions.”

Lapan did not say how many tactical fighter jets were assigned to the NATO-led mission to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya, but he confirmed that the US aircraft had carried out a number of bombing raids against air defenses since NATO assumed command of the operation on April 4.

The US military had previously said its combat aircraft had been pulled back after a handover to NATO, and that air strikes would be carried out by allies while the United States would play a supporting role.

Lapan said American warplanes were not participating in bombing runs against tanks or other targets related to a UN mandate to protect civilians from Moamer Kadhafi’s forces. US ground-attack aircraft and other warplanes remain on standby for that mission pending a request from NATO, he said.

It was unclear why the Pentagon had waited to reveal the role of US fighter jets in the enforcement of the no-fly zone but the details emerged amid divisions within the NATO alliance over the air campaign.

Britain and France, which led the calls for international intervention to stop Kadhafi’s attacks on his people, have pressed NATO allies to share more of the burden for the air campaign and deploy more combat aircraft.

President Barack Obama’s administration, which has nearly 100,000 troops fighting a grinding war in Afghanistan while it tries to wind down the US mission in Iraq, has been eager for Western allies to bear the brunt of the Libya operation.

The Pentagon insisted that the United States was playing a secondary role despite the revelation that United States was still bombing Libyan targets.

“We are in a support role,” Lapan said.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and other top officers have said the US military’s effort would be confined to mid-air refueling, surveillance flights and search and rescue missions.

© AFP — Published at Activist Post with license