American Predator drones could be used to assassinate Colonel Gaddafi, William Hague said yesterday.
The Foreign Secretary indicated that the unmanned aircraft, which have been used to take out Al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan and Afghanistan, will target the Libyan dictator.
Barack Obama last week authorised the use of two Predators in the skies over Libya. And senior U.S. senators yesterday called on the president to launch air strikes to kill Gaddafi, to ‘cut the head off the snake’.
The calls came as the carnage continued in the besieged Libyan city of Misrata.
Despite Gaddafi’s regime claiming it was going to lay down its arms there, its forces shelled the city yesterday, making it the bloodiest weekend since the war began.
More than 50 people in the city were confirmed dead, and hundreds more injured, after Gaddafi’s forces fired cluster bombs, mortars and tank shells into areas civilians thought were safe again.
Mr Hague said: ‘Reports of the Gaddafi forces completely pulling out of Misrata seem to be exaggerated. This may be cover for actually using more insurgent-type warfare without any uniforms and without tanks.’
In Misrata’s only remaining hospital yesterday, the orderlies were constantly hosing away flood flowing from the trolleys out into the car park.
Inside, two of Gaddafi’s soldiers being treated for bullet wounds claimed they had been forced to fight for the tyrant.
Wearing Chelsea Football Club shorts, one, Misbah, 25, who is from the Libyan town of Sirte, Gaddafi’s birthplace and stronghold, said: ‘Gaddafi’s men said we had to fight Algerians and Al Qaeda terrorists who had taken control of Misrata.
‘They put army units behind us so that we couldn’t run away. We were told we would die if we did – and that the only way we would live is if we killed the entire enemy. Gaddafi is a criminal and a murderer.’
With gun battles raging throughout the city, and mortar shells and cluster bombs raining down on civilian areas, mounting evidence also emerged yesterday of war crimes being committed by Gaddafi’s forces.
One man told how his heavily pregnant wife, also in the hospital, was raped repeatedly by African mercenaries hired by Gaddafi on bounties of up to £500 a day.
Defence Secretary Liam Fox and General Sir David Richards, the Chief of the Defence Staff, will visit the Pentagon this week to ask for more Predators.
The drones carry high-resolution cameras and can deliver pinpoint strikes with missiles – but they have also been linked to the deaths of civilians in Afghanistan. Mr Hague indicated that they could be used to target ‘leading figures’ in the regime such as Gaddafi as long as there is no obvious threat to civilians at the time.
Asked specifically whether the Predators could be used in an assassination strike he said: ‘Who and what is a legitimate target in this depends on how they behave.
‘That’s true of armed forces, whether they are threatening civilians; it’s true of any aircraft that took to the skies; it’s true of any leading figures as well.
‘You always have to bear in mind on any specific target that we’re trying to avoid civilian casualties.’
He added: ‘The plan of course is to continue to tighten the pressure of every form, including the military pressure that is being tightened at the moment on the Gaddafi regime.’
Defence Secretary Liam Fox caused a stir last month when he said Gaddafi would be a ‘legitimate target’ under the UN resolution sanctioning use of force to protect civilians.
But Mr Hague’s words were more significant since the presence of the Predators means Nato now has a means of acting quickly on intelligence about Gaddafi’s whereabouts to launch an attack.
