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    October 26, 2011

Libya's NTC Urges NATO to Stay Through December

   VOA News
   Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) Chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil
   attends a news conference in Benghazi, October 24, 2011. Photo: Reuters
   Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) Chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil
   attends a news conference in Benghazi, October 24, 2011.

   Libya's interim leader has urged NATO to continue its mission in the
   country until at least the end of the year.
   National Transitional Council (NTC) head Mustafa Abdel Jalil said
   Wednesday the move would help prevent remnants of Moammar Gadhafi's
   loyalists from regrouping and posing a security threat.
   He made the appeal in Qatar, at the first international planning
   conference for Libya since Gadhafi's death last week.
   Separately, NATO ambassadors gathered in Brussels on Wednesday to
   consider ending the alliance's seven-month-old air campaign over Libya.
   They decided to postpone a formal decision until Friday to allow time
   for more consultations with Libya's interim leaders.
   Last week, NATO announced a preliminary decision to end the mission on
   October 31.
   Gadhafi was buried Tuesday in a secret desert location. The ousted
   Libyan leader was shot and killed last Thursday as provisional
   government forces stormed his hometown of Sirte.
   The NTC has been under intense international pressure to investigate
   the circumstances of Gadhafi's death. Cellphone video has shown
   provisional government fighters taunting and abusing a wounded Gadhafi
   shortly before he died.
   Libyan officials said the former leader was shot in a crossfire between
   his loyalists and provisional government forces. Fighters on the scene
   have acknowledged beating the ousted leader after his capture.
   U.S. President Barack Obama commented on Gadhafi's death, Tuesday,
   during an appearance on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno - a popular U.S.
   television talk show. Obama said people generally would not ever want
   to see anyone "come to the kind of end" that Gadhafi faced. But, he
   added that Gadhafi's death sent a "strong message" to dictators around
   the world that "people long to be free."
   Requests for a United Nations probe into the circumstances of Gadhafi's
   death could be among the items discussed on Wednesday when the U.N.
   Security Council holds its monthly meeting on the situation in Libya.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

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