NATO's decision-making body has announced a three-month extension of its mission in Libya as the United States prepares to reopen its embassy building in the capital, Tripoli, on Thursday.
With forces loyal to former leader Moammar Gadhafi still entrenched in his hometown of Sirte and a few other strategic locations, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the alliance is determined to continue its mission “for as long as necessary.”
It is the second 90-day extension of the NATO campaign in Libya and was approved less than a week before it was set to end.
Also Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador Gene Cretz returned to Tripoli, a day before the United States plans to raise its flag over its mission in the Libyan capital.
Cretz was based in Tripoli until December 2010. He left the country after the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks released his assessments of Mr. Gadhafi's personal life in which he described the former leader as “mercurial,” “notoriously erratic” and a “hypochondriac.”
Meanwhile, a military spokesman for Libya's National Transitional Council said NTC forces now control most of the southern desert city of Sabha – one of Mr. Gadhafi's last strongholds. Ahmed Bani said while anti-Gadhafi fighters are still encountering resistance, they have largely taken over the city.
But provisional authority forces still are struggling to oust Gadhafi loyalists from the towns of Bani Walid and Sirte.
At Bani Walid, fighting has been chaotic, with different NTC brigades arguing among themselves, fighters from other areas not getting along with local comrades and talk of traitors sabotaging the assault.
Even as battles raged for control of the last Gadhafi strongholds, Libya's interim prime minister said his administration is working to form a new government. Mahmoud Jibril told reporters Tuesday in New York the move will come within the next seven to 10 days.
He said the NTC is finalizing decisions on the exact number of ministries and whether they would all be located in the capital, Tripoli, or divided between eastern and western Libya. The council was based in the eastern stronghold of Benghazi during most of the country's ongoing civil war.
Libya's new flag flew at the U.N. Tuesday for the first time since former leader Moammar Gadhafi's ouster. U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon welcomed the country's new leaders into the international community, saying the Security Council acted to protect the Libyan people from violence.
