NATO allies on Friday formally agreed to end the seven-month mission in Libya on Monday, a diplomat said. NATO ambassadors meeting in Brussels agreed “by unanimity to end OUP (Operation Unified Protector) on October 31,” the diplomat said on condition of anonymity. NATO made a preliminary decision last week to end operations on Monday after judging that civilians were essentially safe from attacks following Gaddafi’s death and the fall of Sirte.
The formal decision Friday came one day after the UN Security Council unanimously voted to end the mandate that authorised military action in Libya from 11.59pm Libyan time (2159 GMT) on October 31. Alliance warplanes flew more than 26,000 sorties and bombed almost 6,000 targets in an operation that began in March and helped a ragtag rebel force oust veteran ruler Muammar Gaddafi.
ICC in ‘informal contact’ with Gaddafi’s son: The International Criminal Court is in “informal contact” with Seif al-Islam, the fugitive son of slain Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, its prosecutor said on Friday. “Through intermediaries, we have informal contact with Seif,” Luis Moreno-Ocampo said in a statement issued at the court’s headquarters in The Hague. “The Office of the Prosecutor has made it clear that if he surrenders to the ICC, he has the right to be heard in court, he is innocent until proven guilty,” Moreno-Ocampo said. “The judges will decide.”
Seif, 39, and Gaddafi’s security chief and brother-in-law Abdullah al-Senussi, 62, are the most wanted fugitives from the slain despot’s ousted circle. They are wanted by the ICC on charges of crimes against humanity, committed after the start of the uprising against Gaddafi’s regime in mid-February. The ICC issued arrest warrants against the three on June 27.
