Court in talks with Gadhafi's son Saif

Nato to end eventful Libya mission on Monday

Alliance warplanes will wind up the mission on Monday after flying more than 26,000 sorties and bombing almost 6,000 targets in a seven-month operation that helped a ragtag rebel force oust colonel Gadhafi.

“We have fully complied with the historic mandate of the United Nations to protect the people of Libya, to enforce the no-fly zone and the arms embargo,” Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in a statement.

“Operation Unified Protector is one of the most successful in Nato history,” he said after Nato ambassadors formally agreed to end it. “We are concluding it in a considered and controlled manner — because our military job is now done.”

The conflict ended in controversial fashion when Gadhafi was shot dead on October 20, a killing that was criticised even by Western allies of the interim regime, the National Transitional Council.

Miles to go

While saying Libyans “liberated their country” and “transformed the region,” Rasmussen added “they still have a lot of work to do — to build a new Libya, based on reconciliation, human rights and the rule of law. A democratic Libya for all its people.”

Facing global criticism over Gadhafi’s death, the NTC vowed on Thursday to bring Gadhafi’s killers to justice in a sharp break with their previous insistence he was caught in the crossfire with his own loyalists.

“We had issued a statement saying that any violations of human rights will be investigated by the NTC. Whoever is responsible for that (Gadhafi’s killing) will be judged and given a fair trial,” said NTC vice chairman Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, adding that he was certain it was an “individual act”.