According to NATO figures, since 31st March 2011, 08.00GMT a total of 547 sorties and 218 strike sorties have been conducted. Each type of sortie does not necessarily deploy munitions, but they do engage and identify targets.
On 2nd April, 184 sorties and 70 strike sorties were conducted. On the arms embargo front, 21 ships under NATO command are actively patrolling the Central Mediterranean. Four vessels were hailed on 2nd April to determine destination and cargo. One boarding was required. A total of 34 vessels have been hailed since the beginning of arms embargo operations.
On 3rd April 2011, 154 sorties and 58 strike sorties were conducted.
NATO took command of Libya operations on 31st March 2011. The operational commander for Operation Unified Protector is Lieutenant-General Charles Bouchard of the Canadian Air Force. His office and staff is located at the Joint Force Command in Naples.
Front page photo credit: Caporal Marc-Andre Gaudreault, Caméra de Combat des Forces Canadiennes, courtesy of NATO.
In This Story: Libya
Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa, bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad to the south, Niger to the southwest, Algeria to the west, and Tunisia to the northwest.
The sovereign state is made of three historical regions: Tripolitania, Fezzan and Cyrenaica. The largest city and capital, Tripoli, is located in western Libya and contains over three million of Libya’s seven million people. The second-largest city is Benghazi, which is located in eastern Libya.
Libya became independent as a kingdom in 1951. A military coup in 1969 overthrew King Idris I. Parts of Libya are currently split between rival Tobruk and Tripoli-based governments, as well as various tribal and Islamist militias.
Libya is a member of the United Nations (since 1955), the Non-Aligned Movement, the Arab League, the OIC and OPEC. The country’s official religion is Islam, with 96.6% of the Libyan population being Sunni Muslims.
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