US deploys killer drones in Libya

Fighting moving towards stalemate, says American army chief

The deployment of the Predators, highly successful in operations on the Af-Pak border, comes as senior Republican Senator John McCain on Friday met Libyan rebel in Benghazi, the headquarters of the opposition Transitional National Council (TNC) and members of the military to assess the situation on the ground.

The deadly drones carried out a number of strikes in rebel-held western Misurata as well as on suspected missile sites in capital Tripoli giving tactical advantage to the opposition, who drove out dozens of snipers on tall buildings in hours of street fighting, NATO officials said.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US military’s joint chiefs of staff, admitted that while the NATO air strikes had weakened the Libyan forces, the conflict was moving into “stalemate”.

Mullen, speaking to US troops in Iraq, said the fighting in Libya is “moving towards stalemate”, even though US and Nato air strikes have destroyed 30-40 person of Gadhafi’s ground forces.

Amid the heavy street fighting in Misurata, Gadhafi’s forces stepped up the pounding of the city, 214 km east of the capital. At least seven civilians were killed in Thursday and BBC quoted medics as saying more than 1,000 people have been killed since the fighting began in February.

As civilians were being targeted in the streets by snipers, the low-flying pilotless drones will be able to accurately target pro-Gadhafi units on the ground in Misurata.
Amid warnings of a “stalemate” in the war, NATO has stepped up its attaks on Gadhafi’s forces. Al Jazeera quoted Libyan state television as saying on Friday that nine people were killed overnight in a NATO bombardment of Sirte, the home town of the embattled leader.

Earlier, it reported that NATO had carried out air strikes in Khallat al-Farjan area of the capital Tripoli, killing seven people and wounding 18 others. However, NATO denied that the raid had led to death of civilians, underlineing that a command and control bunker in a military compound was the target.

The announcement of deployment of armed drones over Libya was made by Defence Secretary Robert Gates, who said this would give allied forces “precision capability” in military operation.

US officials said at least two predators would remain in the Libyan airspace at all times and the Hellfire missile equipped UAVs would prove more effective than A-10 ground attack aircraft.