France to step up strikes in Libya

[onehandle]

Source: AP

PARIS – France vowed Wednesday to step up airstrikes on Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's forces and acknowledged that it has military officers already working with Libyan rebels on the ground. France and Italy joined Britain in announcing their commitment of military officers to help the rebels, who have failed to rout Moammar Gadhafi's forces despite weeks of NATO-led airstrikes.

Both France and Italy remained firm against sending ground troops into Libya, a dangerous and politically risky step. However NATO, which is leading the U.N.-sanctioned international military operation to protect civilians, is now acknowledging that airstrikes alone cannot stop the heavy shelling of cities by Gadhafi's forces.

Gadhafi's forces attacked a mountain town and a besieged coastal city Wednesday, part of a drive to crush pockets of resistance in the western part of the country that is largely under the Libyan leader's control.

"France has placed alongside our special envoy in Benghazi a small number of liaison officers," French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Christine Fages said in an online briefing Wednesday. The officers are working on technical, logistical, and organizational help, she said. She did not indicate how long they have been there.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/libya_diplomacy

[dipsydoodle]

1. Associated news from UK

Libya: MPs' concerns over 'mission creep' grow.

Almost daily, ministers deny that Britain is immersing itself ever more deeply into a civil war in Libya.

Almost daily, a vocal core of MPs on both sides of the House of Commons voice their fears that the coalition government is engaged in precisely that.

And when Parliament returns from its Easter break next week, the questioning will rise to a new pitch.

The latest announcement from Foreign Secretary William Hague that about a dozen UK military officers are being ordered to join the rebels of the Libyan National Transitional Council has added further urgency to the suggestion that Britain is engaged on a gradual, and undeclared, escalation of its role.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13142441