Nato to exit Libya at end of October

NATO plans to end its seven-month bombing campaign in Libya at the end of the month, leaving the battle-scarred country’s new authorities to ensure security after the death of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

The alliance will make the formal announcement this week.

Diplomats said Nato air patrols are set to continue over Libya in the next ten days as a precautionary measure to ensure the stability of the new regime.

The council took into account the wishes of Libya’s new government and of the United Nations, under whose mandate Nato carried out its operations.

Victory in the war represents a major boost for the alliance, which is bogged down in the ten-year war in Afghanistan, the 12-year mission in Kosovo, and the seemingly never- ending anti-piracy operation off the Somali coastline.

It has enhanced the reputations of France and Britain, the two countries that drove it forward, coming at a time when the alliance’s relevance is increasingly in doubt as countries make deep defence cuts and other austerity measures caused by the international economic crisis.

Nato secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen hailed the success of the operation which started on 19 March with a series of US-led attacks designed to suppress Col Gaddafi’s formidable air defences, including missile and radar networks.