NATO Begins New Phase of Anti-Gadhafi Campaign

Airstrikes going after supply lines, important symbols of power
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 26, 2011 11:53 AM CDT
NATO Begins New Phase of Anti-Gadhafi Campaign
In this photo made on a government-organized tour, Libyan soldiers walk through debris caused by a NATO airstrike in Tripoli.   (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

NATO's airstrike against one of Moammar Gadhafi's military compounds in Tripoli appears to be just the start of what amounts to Phase 3 of the anti-Gadhafi campaign. The first phase took out anti-aircraft systems, the second hit tanks on the front lines, and now, as Reuters and the New York Times report, NATO is going after Gadhafi's supply lines, communications centers, and symbols of power.

US and British military officials are meeting today in Washington to flesh out "how we can put military pressure on the regime, and that will include the tooth and the tail—the people pulling the trigger to kill civilians in Misrata and the people supplying them," says a British official. The hope is that the bombing campaign will undermine support for Gadhafi among his troops and inner circle and force him into exile. Meanwhile, fresh fighting has been reported in both Misrata and the nation's western mountain region. (More Moammar Gadhafi stories.)

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