NATO tries to kill Gaddafi: US General

US Admiral Samuel Locklear

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/186382.html

A top US commander involved in the military operations in Libya has admitted that NATO forces are seeking to kill Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi.

Admiral Samuel Locklear, commander of the NATO Joint Operations Command in Naples, said on Sunday that the military alliance has recently stepped up attacks to kill Gaddafi, The Telegraph reported.

Locklear's remarks were disclosed by the US House Representative Mike Turner, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, who has from the beginning of the Libya mission voiced opposition to military intervention in the North African country.

Turner has told Foreign Policy magazine that after a conversation with admiral Locklear, he now believes that NATO is overstepping the UN Resolution1973.

“I believe the scope that NATO is pursuing is beyond what is contemplated in civil protection, so they're exceeding the mission,” Turner said.

The United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1973 on March 17, which authorized all necessary measures to “protect civilians and civilian-populated areas under threat of attack” in Libya.

However, NATO has turned a blind eye to the framework defined in the resolution by carrying out attacks on civilian areas in Libya, killing dozens of people, including children.

Meanwhile, South African President Jacob Zuma has once again warned NATO against exceeding the terms of the UN resolution.

“The intention was not to authorize a campaign for regime change or political assassination” Zuma said in an opening speech at a four-hour closed-door meeting of the African Union panel on Libya in the South African capital Pretoria, according to the text of the speech.

Zuma urged both Gaddafi regime and revolutionary forces to resolve the issue diplomatically to end a deadly impasse which will potentially “destabilize the entire sub-region.”