NATO says its aircraft hit Libyan rebel column (Reuters)

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – NATO said on Saturday its aircraft carried out an attack on a column of military vehicles this week that Libyan opposition forces said injured 16 of its fighters.

Rebel spokesman Farag al-Moghraby said on Thursday the air strike took place near Ajdabiyah, eastern Libya, and that six rebel pickup trucks fitted with anti-aircraft guns had been destroyed.

"NATO can now confirm that the vehicles hit were part of an opposition patrol," it said in a statement after investigating the rebel report of the incident.

"This incident occurred in an area of conflict between Gaddafi forces and opposition forces," it said.

"A column of military vehicles including tanks was observed in an area where Gaddafi forces had recently been operating. In a particularly complex and fluid battle scenario, it was assessed these vehicles were a threat to civilians and they were subsequently engaged by NATO aircraft."

NATO has been concentrating the air campaign it took over in Libya on March 31 on Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's forces but says it will target any forces it judges a threat to civilians it is mandated to protect under a United Nations resolution.

The statement said NATO regretted injury or loss or life.

NATO accidentally struck rebel positions on several occasions early in the air campaign. It said at the time that the similar appearance and equipment of rebel and Gaddafi forces in the desert terrain made targeting difficult.

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Libya: NATO aircraft pound Tripoli

NEW: Explosions heard near Gadhafi compoundA compound for pro-Gadhafi volunteers is targetedIt is one of the heaviest NATO attacks on Tripoli so farArrest warrants are issued for Gadhafi

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Six thunderous explosions rocked the center of Tripoli late Tuesday. A hotel for international journalists located within 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's compound shook during the attacks.

The attacks capped a day in which 19 people died and 150 were wounded after NATO aircraft launched a barrage of strikes on the Libyan capital in what a government official called the heaviest onslaught since the aerial strikes began.

At least 18 rockets struck Tripoli while a U.S envoy in the eastern rebel-held city of Benghazi was courting members of the transitional government.

Reporters felt and heard the most recent explosions from the hotel where they are staying. Outbursts of gunfire, as well as ambulance sirens, could be heard in the streets.

Jeffery Feltman, the U.S assistant secretary of state for near Eastern affairs, told reporters in Benghazi that he had invited the National Transitional Council to open a representative office in Washington -- and that the council has accepted.

Feltman added that he had come to reiterate a message from President Barack Obama that "Gadhafi has lost legitimacy to rule. He cannot regain control of Libya. And he must step down immediately."

After the airstrikes Tuesday morning, smoke was seen rising from the area near Gadhafi's Bab-al-Azizia compound.

Moussa Ibrahim, a Libyan government spokesman, said the attack targeted a guard compound for pro-Gadhafi military volunteers that had been emptied in anticipation of the attack. He called the attack an escalation by NATO.

A NATO statement said the attack had targeted a "regime vehicle storage facility" adjacent to the Bab-al-Azizia compound. The facility resupplies government forces that have been attacking Libyan civilians, according to the NATO statement.

Gadhafi's forces "still represent a threat to civilians and we will continue to strike targets that carry out this violence," said Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard of Canada, who commands the Libya operation.

Journalists later visited a hospital where they said they saw the bodies of three men, at least two covered in dust, and a number of wounded people.

Arrest warrants have been issued by the International Criminal Court for Gadhafi and two relatives, linking them to "widespread and systematic" attacks on civilians as they struggle to retain power in Libya.

The court's chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, has said that the court in The Hague will investigate allegations of institutionalized rape in the war-torn country.

A Libyan government official told CNN that Gadhafi's government welcomes the court's investigation but said that prosecutors "have not been to Libya to do an investigation."

CNN's Nima Elbagir, Amir Ahmed, Nic Robertson and Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report.

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Obama OKs use of armed drone aircraft in Libya

By Brendan Smialowski, Getty Images

Defense Secretary Robert Gates speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon on Thursday.

EnlargeCloseBy Brendan Smialowski, Getty Images

Defense Secretary Robert Gates speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon on Thursday.

It also is the first time that drones will have been used for airstrikes since the conflict began on March 19, although they have routinely been flying surveillance missions, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters at a Pentagon briefing Thursday.

He said the United States will provide up to two 24-hour combat air patrols each day by the unmanned Predators.

Marine Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the drones can help counteract the pro-Moammar Gadhafi forces' tactic of traveling in civilian vehicles that make it difficult to distinguish them from rebel forces.

STORY: Libya rebels claim border post control"What they will bring that is unique to the conflict is their ability to get down lower, therefore to be able to get better visibility on targets that have started to dig themselves into defensive positions," Cartwright said. "They are uniquely suited for urban areas."

He added, "It's very difficult to pick friend from foe. So a vehicle like the Predator that can get down lower and can get IDs better, helps us."

Gates rejected the notion that the approval of drone strikes means that the U.S. will get pulled slowly back into a more active combat role, despite Obama's vow merely to provide support for NATO.

U.S. forces played a lead role in the early days of the conflict, launching an onslaught of cruise missiles and bombs against Gadhafi's surface-to-air missile sites and advancing Gadhafi's troops.

With American forces stretched by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the humanitarian operations in Japan, the Pentagon turned the mission over to NATO, saying it would do only limited airstrikes to take out air defenses. The United States, said Obama,no longer would do airstrikes to protect the civilian population.

Gates said that bringing in the Predators will give NATO a critical capability that the U.S. uniquely can contribute.

"I think this is a very limited additional role on our part, but it does provide some additional capabilities to NATO," said Gates. "And if we can make a modest contribution with these armed Predators, we'll do it. … I don't think any of us see that as mission creep."

He said Obama has been clear that there will be no U.S. boots on the ground, and the main strike role would belong to the allies.

The first Predator mission since Obama's go-ahead was flown Thursday, but the aircraft, armed with Hellfire missiles, turned back due to poor weather conditions without firing any of its munitions, said Cartwright.

Gates, who publicly expressed skepticism about getting involved militarily in Libya before Obama endorsed the limited intervention, said "the real work" of overthrowing Gadhafi will have to be done by the Libyans themselves.

While he acknowledged the conflict "is likely to take a while," Gates also said the continuing sanctions, arms embargo and NATO-led offensive have weakened Gadhafi's military and eaten away at his supplies and cash. Over the long term, Gates said, that will hurt Gadhafi's ability to strike back at opposition forces, if they should rise up again in other cities.

At the same time, however, Gates said the administration's decision to provide $25 million in nonlethal military assistance to the rebels did not signal a deeper U.S. commitment to anti-Gadhafi forces whose makeup, objectives and motives still are not fully understood in Washington.

The aid, he said, is not high-end military equipment but rather a hodgepodge of things like uniforms and canteens.

"I'm not worried about our canteen technology falling into the wrong hands," he joked.

Asked how long he believes it will take the NATO-led air campaign to succeed, Gates replied, "The honest answer to that is, nobody knows."

In other comments, Gates did not rule out major military program cuts to meet Obama's goal to slash another $400 billion from U.S. national security spending over the next 12 years. But he laid out some programs he believes are vital, including the new Air Force refueling tanker and the replacement of some Navy ships.

"The worst of all possible worlds, in my view, is to give the entire Department of Defense a haircut, basically (saying) everybody is going to cut X percent," said Gates.

Instead, he said the Pentagon must lay out options and the risks involved if particular cuts are made and how they would affect military missions.

He added that he does not know how much of the cut the Pentagon will be expected to take.

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