France Admits to Have Supplied Libyan Rebels With Weapons

Col. Thierry Burkhard

France confirmed on Wednesday that it supplied the Libyan rebel army with weapons, the first time a NATO nation offers military support to those who want to ouster Muammar al Qaddafi.

The spokesman for French military, colonel Thierry Burkhard, said France answered in June a request made by the United Nations in May for a “humanitarian pause” during which relief and medical supplies would be delivered to the people in the city of Misurata and the towns and cities in the western region of the country.

Libyan Rebels

Burkhard said UN never dispatched the help, but that the French army airdropped water, food, and the medical supplies, and, along with them they also dropped ammunition and arms several times: riffles, machine guns, launchers, and rocket-propelled grenades.

Le Figaro was the first to talk about the French army helping the Libyan rebels, saying that it was meant to break the stalemate in Libya.

The rebels were under constant fire of the loyalists right until the moment the arms were airdropped in their region, at which time the tide turned against the loyalists, and the control was gained by the army of the rebels over the entire Nafusah Mountains region.

The advance of the rebel forces continued, and on Tuesday they conquered an enormous government weapons deposit.

France does not want the conflict in Libya to drag on and cost immensely, which is why it favors, like the other great powers involved, US and the UK, the idea of a swift blow to the regime.