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| Local Editor | |
 As the Libyan leader has met his fate, NATO was preparing to announce the end of its mission in Libya.NATO ambassadors will gather at 1300 GMT on Friday to discuss an end to the alliance's six-month air campaign in Libya, diplomats said. A NATO official said ambassadors from the 28-member alliance would meet in Brussels "with Libya on the agenda of talks". French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said, also on Friday, Friday that the western alliance air campaign could be considered over. "I think we can say that the military operation is finished, that the whole of Libyan territory is under the control of the National Transitional Council and that, subject to a few transitory measures in the week to come, the NATO operation has arrived at its end", Juppe told Europe 1 radio from India. The Libyans "have their destiny in their hands", Juppe said. "The operation must now conclude because our objective, which was to accompany the forces of the National Transitional Council in the liberation of their territory, has now been reached", Juppe said. "Our goal was not to kill Gaddafii. When I say us, I'm talking about the coalition, of France within NATO. Our goal was to force him to relinquish power. It was then up to the National Transitional Council to capture and judge him", he said. A day earlier, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said an end to NATO's involvement in the oil-rich north African state "has now moved much closer”. Also on Thursday, a NATO official said that the alliance's Supreme Allied Commander, Admiral James Stavridis, is due to issue a recommendation, "probably tomorrow (Friday), for the end of the operation". French, US and British forces spearheaded the air campaign against Kadhafi's military by the NATO military alliance, which has launched nearly 1,000 strike sorties since March 31. |
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