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Subscribe to RSSNATO confirmed Thursday that it had carried out an airstrike on a convoy near Sirte, where Moammar Gadhafi died. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.
By Jim Miklaszewski, NBC News Pentagon correspondent
A U.S. Predator drone fired a Hellfire missile at the 15-vehicle convoy carrying former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi as he attempted to flee his hometown of Sirte, U.S. officials told NBC News.
According to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, both the Predator and a NATO warplane launched missiles, striking several vehicles while the rest scattered. Gadhafi was in or near the motorcade, but apparently managed to make his way to a nearby drainage pipe, where he was captured by forces from Libya’s National Transition Council from Misrata.
It's still not clear whether Gadhafi's visible wounds were suffered during the airstrike or at the hands of his rebel captors.
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I wonder why some journalists will precise "US drone" then give us a voluntarily vague "NATO plane", I can only guess that it is so because the latter was French.
If I had to guess, the fact that the originator of the piece is American, writing principally for a US audience, is probably the reason the US asset was singled out. Unfortunately, reporting the drone as "US" and the aircraft as "NATO" implies a dichotomy that does not exist. The US is a NATO member. This was a NATO op. Both the drone and the aircraft were NATO assets, under NATO command.
Thanks Allen well said—this author is a pentagon reported, shame on him this is really useless information unless you're looking for bragging rights, or maybe more military money—by the way what is the going price for Hellfire missiles now days? We seem to have lots of money to spend. Was it Obama who said it only cost 2 Billion to dispose of deadgaffy?
Shame on us for participating in murder. What country will the Islamists want next and how will we help them overthrow the government so they can replace it with an Islamic government and Shariah law?
This is a country that protects its Own. Go read your history books on WWII, we didn't turn our cheeks and offer the other one when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. War is Hell as General Grant once said and once the genie has escaped the bottle its not easy to put him back in. Maybe 9/11 didn't have much impact for you but it did for Millions of Americans and other nationals who died in that inferno. If the Islamists have jijad, we have revenge that is served coldly and we never forget.
9/11? Really? You think Libya has a single thing to do with 9/11? Wow! Dick Cheney, is that you?
scy-fy
We would bare the same amount of guilt as we do for the shooting down of an Iranian passenger jet full of pilgrims to Mecca.
roger - except this was a military convoy with a guy who was responsible for the lockerbie bombing...
bring back the hangman
Actually, the biggest killer of Americans remains cigarettes and junk food ...
We should bomb Phillip Morris and send Ronald McDonald to Gitmo for enhanced interrogation.
now thats funny!!!!
Our job; is to help these people stsblize their country . They took their country back from their oppressors. We did not send an army , in haste and without a plan to stablize them . I am reasonably sure , that after shedding so much blood ; they will work together , to rebuild . We now stand as a friend . One of many . We should help them identify their assets, stand ready to help them :IF AND WHEN ,WE ARE INVITED !kGKASTROS
The US did not strike a drone at the Gadafi convoy. The entire operation involving the so called liberations fighters in Libya was an operation carried out by the French foreign legion who deployed elements of a battallion base near Ndjamena in Chad south of Libya.
Ghadaffi as in the end betrayed by one of his own men but that is how these things end up anyway. Whats certain is that there will be as much 'democracy' in Libya post Ghadaffi as there is in Iraq post Saddam Hussein.
Arabs whether of Berber or Bedouin stock are perhaps the most trecherous people on gods earth. And some Africans have their blood like the Kenyans of whom Obama is one. Obama is no "African American" in the classic sense like Dr. Martin Luther King or Condolessa Rice. He is African and tribal to the core. And in such situations you need a thief to catch a thief.
The Arabs however racist it may sound do not deserve the fruits of peace or civil society till they reform themselves. And that can only be achieved through forcing them for generations to end their instinctive barbarity. Lets not celebrate this bunch of ingrates and their 'victories' too quickly shall we?
I am not saying that a US drone wasn't used, but I find it funny that it was later that all of the sudden it gets added to the story, we have to get credit some how. One problem though the other stories out clearly state that no crater was seen, leading to believe that the convoy was strafed with machine guns from a jet or helicopter, you hit a pickup truck with a hellfire missile designed to take out a tank YOU WILL LEAVE A CRATER.
Don't be silly.
We can load any munitions we want, from cluster bombs to poison gas.
Probably some anti-convoy soft target warhead was used to engage the group.
Probably the AGM-114R Hellfire II. Maybe with thermobaric blast added for spite.
Funny, but it seems we DON'T want responsibility rather than what most believe.
Our drones are a potent weapon, and we do NOT want the press.
We wanted the French to get credit, but its not possible any more.
Real question is that Qhadaffi group must have believed they would be killed if they surrendered, or they did not want to live in shame.
Those flying cars should not have been in the no-fly-zone. The fact that we had no confirmation of Gadaffi being in the convoy is not important.
See how much truth the government of the U.S. believes in and operates by.
What will the U.S Gov. now do with Gaddafi's million-man well trained and equipped army and his 100,000 Secret Police that he did not have?
nato is going to pull out ,now who is left holding the bag,my guess is 0bama and his replacement in 2013,0bama is on a 4 year screw America tour,4 years was 0bamas mission so says soros