FreaknDavid

By the CNN Wire Staff
March 25, 2011 9:15 a.m. EDT


Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Boosted by support from two significant nations -- one Arab and the other the sole Muslim alliance member -- NATO prepared to assume command over the Libya mission Friday as coalition airstrikes pounded targets for a sixth consecutive night.
The United Arab Emirates announced Friday that it will send 12 aircraft in the coming days to help patrol and enforce the United Nations-mandated no-fly zone. And Turkey, once reluctant of military operations, agreed to the use of an eastern air base in Izmir.
Other Muslim nations participating in the Libya mission include Qatar, which will begin flying planes this weekend, and Jordan, which has agreed to provide humanitarian support.
Early Friday, coalition warplanes roared through Libyan skies, bombing the periphery of the capital where military bases are located. Anti-aircraft fire burst out but then fell silent.
International reporters in Tripoli were escorted to farmlands east of Tripoli in Tajura, where Moammar Gadhafi's government claims airstrikes killed civilians.
A military base along the way had been bombed and was still smoldering Friday.
In Tajura, missile fragments lay scattered about and shrapnel had peppered walls of still-standing farm buildings.
One farmer told reporters that a missile landed at about 8 p.m. Thursday but that there were no military installations nearby. The missile gouged a small hole in a palm tree and sprayed debris that damaged windows and doors of the farm buildings.
Gadhafi has been keen to put out the word on collateral damage from the coalition's airstrikes. The day before, international reporters in Tripoli were taken to a seaside cemetery where the funerals of 33 people allegedly killed in airstrikes were taking place.
State television said the dead were victims of the "crusader colonial aggression."
CNN could not independently verify the circumstances of the deaths or who the victims were. In Tripoli, CNN reporters go on government-organized tours in an effort to do their own reporting; Libyan authorities forbid independent movement by international journalists in Tripoli.
The reports of civilian deaths, however, were given little credence by coalition forces.
"The only civilian casualties we know are for certain are the ones that the Libyan government itself has caused," U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Bill Gortney said.
Airstrikes Friday also targeted Libyan armored vehicles in Ajdabiya, where fierce fighting has raged this week between the opposition and Gadhafi forces for control of the strategically located city about 430 miles (700 km) southeast of the capital.
NATO takes control of the mission soon, though it is still struggling to define the mandate.
Under an agreement reached Thursday, NATO forces will be able to close Libyan air space to all flights except humanitarian ones and will be able to use force in self-defense.
At present, the mandate is not being interpreted as a license to attack Libyan government troops who may be threatening unarmed civilians. But that could change.
NATO also has sent a directive to its military chain of command asking for a plan on how to execute an expanded role for enforcement of U.N. Resolution 1973, according to NATO sources.
The coalition has already established a no-fly zone that spans from east to west along Libya's coast.
Under what some officials were calling "no-fly plus," NATO would be given more robust rules of engagement to ensure that civilians are protected, the sources said. And, in an effort to ease concerns from Turkey coalition forces would be allowed to withdraw from certain missions, such as those involving attacking Libyan soldiers, the sources said.
As for the prospect of a more robust mandate, one that the U.S.-led coalition has followed so far, "That decision has not been made yet," NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said from the organization's headquarters in Brussels.
He added that NATO will have outside help in whatever mission it opts to pursue. "It's of utmost importance to stress that this is not primarily a NATO operation," he said. "It is a broad international effort in which we will include partners from the region that have pledged to contribute to this protection of civilians in Libya."
Michael Burns, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO, said he expects the defense alliance to take over command of the entire operation in a few days to keep up pressure on Gadhafi.
"The no-flight zone alone can not protect the civilians of Libya," Burns told CNN. "Gadhafi is still attacking ... He is still on the move in some places."
A German lawmaker criticized the nations engaged in the Libya mission Friday, saying on a television talk show that it could be long and drawn out and eventually require ground troops.
"Then people will be happy the German government made the decision that it did," said Dirk Niebel, minister for development aid in Germany, which has refused to participate in the Libya mission.
"I find it strange that countries that are still getting oil from Libya are happily bombing the place," he said. "I think before military intervention, you should exhaust all non-military methods of pressure."
Many agree with the German lawmaker in that the Libya campaign could drag on for weeks, even months, as Gadhafi shows no signs of backing down.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he has seen no signs of the cease-fire called for under U.N. Resolution 1973, which was hurriedly passed March 17 as Libyan forces were closing in on the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.
"To the contrary, fierce battles continue in and around the cities of Ajdabiya, Misrata and Zinan," Ban said Thursday, adding his envoy told Libyan authorities that if the government did not comply with the cease-fire resolution, "the Security Council was prepared to take additional measures."
Ban sent an envoy to Friday's African Union meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at which representatives of the Gadhafi government and the opposition were expected to attend. "Their aim: to reach a cease-fire and political solution."
But there was no sign that any such solution was near. The battle for Misrata, Libya's third-largest city, has been ongoing for more than a week.
So far, U.S. forces have shouldered the bulk of the mission, according to figures provided by the Pentagon.
Of the 175 Tomahawk missiles fired, 168 were from the United States and seven from Great Britain, the only two countries to possess them, while U.S. planes have flown almost two-thirds of the sorties and U.S. ships comprise more than two-thirds of the total involved.
French jets fired air-to-ground missiles to destroy a Libyan combat aircraft Thursday that was in violation of the no-fly mandate, the French Defense Ministry said. The plane was struck as it was landing in a Misrata airfield.
The Libyan conflict was sparked in February by protests against Gadhafi's nearly 42-year rule. The strongman responded with force against civilians, prompting the international community to take action beginning last weekend.
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