Hours after Nato-led aircraft launched new raids on Tripoli, ambassadors of the military alliance meeting in Brussels decided to renew the mission for another 90 days to late September.
"This decision sends a clear message to the Gaddafi regime. We are determined to continue our operation to protect the people of Libya," said Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Nato secretary general.[Ron: So far NATO and its members have done this by killing 718 Libyan civilians and wounding another 4,067!]
"We will sustain our efforts to fulfil the United Nations mandate" to defend civilians from Gaddafi's forces, he said in a statement, adding: "We will keep up the pressure to see it through."[Ron: the UN "mandate" under UN Resolution 1973 is for a "NO FLY ZONE" it does NOT authorise the killing and maiming of Libyan civilians by bombing Tripoli or ANYWHERE else. A "NO FLY ZONE" simply implies that NATO is entitled to prevent any airborne craft from attacking Libyan civilians (or anyone). That should imply that NATO must prevent its members from attacking Libyans on the ground also!]
Nato, whose current campaign expires on June 27, has intensified its air raids in recent weeks with daily strikes on command and control bunkers in Tripoli to prevent Gaddafi from crushing a revolt that began in mid-February.[Ron: What does "command and control bunkers in Tripoli" actually MEAN? How many FKN command and control bunkers are there? There must be thousands of them if NATO bombs several every day and expects to keep doing it for another FOUR MONTHS! And what evidence has been adduced to PROVE that the homes of Colonel Gaddafi and his extended family ARE "command and control bunkers in Tripoli'? This is sheer "Alice in wonderland stuff". Everything is assumed to be just what NATO SAYS it is!]
Wednesday's decision would give individual nations time to prepare their contributions [Ron: "contributions"?! Anyone would think that bombing Libya back to the Stone Age is just part of a charity drive instead of the slaughter of a sovereign people in order to steal their land, their money, their oil, their water and their LABOUR!] for the next 90 days, a Nato diplomat said [Ron: Pray tell: "What is the FKN NAME of this "Nato diplomat"?].
"There were very positive signs that nations will extend with the appropriate number of resources," the diplomat said [Ron: Whose NAME. rank and Number IS?].
The Libyan government said on Tuesday that the air war has so far cost the lives of 718 civilians and wounded more than 4,000.
"Since March 19, and up to May 26, there have been 718 martyrs among civilians and 4,067 wounded – 433 of them seriously," government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim said, citing health ministry numbers which cannot be independently verified, [Ron: Really? why not? Are the media whores too frightened to venture from their safe quarters in a swank downtown Tripoli hotel to actiually SEE for themselves what's going on? What sort of journalism is that? Why don't these journalists earn their wages by, for example, attending the places of work of the 100 plus medics who have sought cessation of the NATO bombing. See: Russian and Ukrainian medics in Libya make urgent plea: http://abundanthope.net/pages/Human_Animal_Rights_104/Russian-and-Ukrainian-medics-in-Libya-make-urgent-plea.shtml]
Mr Ibrahim said these figures do not include Libyan military casualties, a toll the defence ministry refuses to divulge.
Nato cast doubt on the Libyan claim.[WTF?!? WHY is the media sooo obviously a propaganda organ of NATO?!]
"We have no indications that that is the case," Nato deputy spokesman Carmen Romero said, adding the alliance has no way to verify the claims because it does not have troops on the ground.[Ron: SOOO, WHY is this irrelevant and misleading remark being reported at all?!]
"Nato is conducting its operations to implement the UN mandate to protect civilians with great care and precision," she said. "This is in clear contrast with the indiscriminate attacks of the Kadhafi regime on his own people."[FUCK OFF AMERIKA (and NATO) you're lying shits!' US dropped cluster bombs on Misratah' which reports that a Human Rights investigation in Libya has found that it was the US and its Western allies who cluster bombed the troubled city of Misratah back in April.