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WAR REPORT
NATO hails 'great victory' of Libyan people
by Staff Writers
Brussels (AFP) Oct 23, 2011


NATO's chief urged Libyans on Sunday to put aside their differences and build a new Libya after their "great victory" over Moamer Kadhafi's dictatorship.

"I warmly welcome the announcement by the National Transitional Council that Libya has now been fully liberated," Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said after the NTC declared the country "liberated."

"This is a great victory for the people of Libya. Their courage and determination in the cause of freedom has inspired the world," said Rasmussen, two days after NATO decided to end its air war on October 31.

"As they embark on the challenging journey from dictatorship to democracy, I call on all Libyans to put aside their differences and build a new inclusive Libya, based on reconciliation, and full respect for human rights and the rule of law," he said.

NATO will take a formal decision to end its seven-month-old operation in the next few days, the alliance chief said.

While NATO winds down its operations, he said it will continue to monitor the situation and stand ready to respond if needed "so that the people of Libya can safely take their future fully into their own hands."

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Germany probes suspected illegal Libyan arms sales: reports
Berlin (AFP) Oct 23, 2011 - A German prosecutor is examining the possible illegal sale of weapons to Libyan ex-strongman Moamer Kadhafi by a German firm, according to press reports Sunday.

The public prosecutor in the southwestern city of Stuttgart is reported to have opened a case against the firm Heckler & Koch into the possible illegal delivery of several hundred G36 assault rifles, which are used by the German army.

During the battle for Tripoli, Libyan rebels are reported to have found the same model of rifle in the home of the ex-dictator who was killed Thursday as he tried to flee his hometown of Sirte.

However, due to an arms sales embargo, forces loyal to Kadhafi should not have been able to get hold of the rifles.

Citing experts, the mass-circulation Bild am Sonntag newspaper said the serial numbers on the weapons had been "falsified with a high degree of technicality".

Der Spiegel magazine reported that Heckler & Koch had acknowledged having officially delivered 608 rifles and 500,000 cartridges to the Egyptian defence ministry with German government consent.

It was unclear how the weapons reached Libya.

But Bild am Sonntag said the transfer was possibly negotiated by one of Kadhafi's sons, Saadi, during a 2003 trip to the company's headquarters in Oberndorf, in the southwest of Germany.

Shortly afterwards the arms were reportedly delivered to Egypt.

"There is no trace of a visit by Saadi Kadhafi, nor of a delivery of G36 assault rifles to Libya in the archives of the company," Heckler & Koch's lawyer, Juergen Wessing, told the newspaper.



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WAR REPORT
Mission accomplished for NATO in Libya, but what next?
Brussels (AFP) Oct 21, 2011
NATO wind downs its mission in Libya on Friday after a seven-month campaign that saw the United States hand the helm to Europe for the first time in the history of the alliance. Though Washington lashed the Europeans for over-reliance on US military might to stay the course of the campaign, analysts believe the Libya example will underpin a continuing NATO role on the European theatre. T ... read more


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