NATO to continue airstrikes to aid Libya civilians

 
BRUSSELS  - NATO said on Monday it took note of reports of an African Union proposal for a ceasefire in Libya, but an official said the alliance would target Muammar Gaddafi's forces as long as they threatened civilians.
South African President Jacob Zuma has urged NATO to stop air strikes on government targets to give a ceasefire "a chance", after Gaddafi accepted an African Union roadmap for ending the conflict in Libya, including an immediate ceasefire.
"We take note of reports of an African Union ceasefire proposal. Since the start of the Libyan crisis, NATO has been in constant touch with the African Union and other regional and international organisations," NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said in a statement.
"We have always made it clear that there could be no purely military solution to this crisis. We welcome all contributions to the broad international effort aimed at stopping the violence against the civilian population in Libya," she said.


Another NATO official said the Western military alliance maintained its presence in Libyan skies on Monday and that forces loyal to Gaddafi had shelled Misrata, a lone major rebel bastion in western Libya which has been under siege for weeks, on Monday morning.
"It does not appear that this indication of a peace deal has any substance at this point," the official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"We will continue to put pressure on forces threatening civilians and our operations will continue ... Our aircraft are still flying and when we see a threat to civilians, we will engage," the official said.
A rebel spokesman in Misrata said forces loyal to Gaddafi had fired Russian-made Grad rockets at targets in the city on Monday and the attacks were continuing.
NATO forces have stepped up air strikes on Gaddafi's armour in the last several days, targeting tanks, ammunition bunkers and lines of communications as they fulfil a United Nations mandate to protect civilians during a rebellion against Gaddafi's four-decade rule.
On Sunday, NATO said it had destroyed 25 tanks as they approached Ajdabiyah, a town bombarded heavily by Gaddafi loyalists, and on the outskirts of Misrata.
More government vehicles were hit late in the day and the NATO strikes helped to push Gaddafi loyalists out of Ajdabiyah after they forced their way in, the official said.
"We saw they were engaged in the city ... Their forces were massing around the southwest and east of the city and we struck them very hard. It is clear that we had an effect," the official said.
The NATO strikes outside Ajdabiyah on Sunday helped break the biggest assault by Gaddafi's forces on the eastern front in at least a week. The town is the gateway to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, 150 km (90 miles) to the north on the Mediterranean coast.
A Reuters reporter saw six burning hulks of military vehicles, surrounded by 15 charred and dismembered bodies, in two sites on Ajdabiyah's western approaches, which rebels said were hit by air strikes.