The United States is doing everything it can to hand over leadership of the coalition air strikes and policing of the no-fly zone over Libya to allies as early as this weekend but will continue flying combat missions afterward.
U.S. Vice Admiral Bill Gortney, director of the military’s Joint Staff, told reporters Thursday that the U.S. role will be largely a supportive one focused on refueling efforts and reconnaissance, but he also conceded the U.S. would continue flying a limited number of strike missions.
Coalition forces, Gortney said, are using “every tool available in our tool kit” to tell members of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s forces to lay down their weapons and stop harming civilians, although he conceded that so far there is no evidence that even one of Qaddafi’s forces has done so.
“I’m not aware of any at this time,” Gortney said.
Hitting Qaddafi’s forces, however, has been difficult because they have moved inside cities, and coalition forces are too concerned about civilian casualties to strike within city limits. Instead, Gortney said, the U.S. is focused on striking the Libyan military’s supply lines into the cities.
“We’re not attacking on forces inside the cities. … We’re doing that because we’re worried we could not meet our collateral damage estimates,” he said. “We’re putting pressure on Qaddafi’s forces that are outside the city. … If you can work on their supply lines and their logistics capability, they are not going to be able to maintain their efforts inside the city.”
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