France, Italy to send military advisors to Libya

France, Italy to send military advisors to Libya

2011-04-20 20:53:01 GMT+7 (ICT)

PARIS (BNO NEWS) -- French government spokesman Francois Baroin on Wednesday announced that a small team of French troops would be sent out to Libya to advise the rebels' Transitional National Council in their fighting efforts against Muammar Gaddafi forces.

According to Baroin, the small group would be tasked with ensuring civilian protection. The spokesman announcement came after rebel leader Mustafa Abdel-Jalil met with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris.

The announcement also came one day after British Foreign Secretary William Hague announced the deployment of military officers to Benghazi as a military liaison advisory team, joining the small team of defense advisers already in the city.

The British advisory team would help rebels on how to better protect civilians and how to improve their military organizational structures, communications and logistics, particularly in distributing humanitarian aid and providing medical assistance, but Hague underlined that they would not participate in any fighting, including training or arming the opposition's fighting forces.

"This deployment is fully within the terms of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 both in respect of civilian protection and its provision expressly ruling out a foreign occupation force on Libyan soil," said Hague.

Meanwhile, Italian Foreign Ministry spokesman Maurizio Massari also announced on Wednesday that a group of military troops would be deployed to help train Libyan rebels in defense strategies.

On Tuesday, French Foreign Affairs Minister Alain Juppe refused the idea of sending coalition ground troops to Libya, saying the Transitional National Council, the rebels' political administration, which has been recognized by France, Qatar, and Italy, should carry out its role with its troops.

According to Libyan rebels, more than 10,000 people have been killed by forces under Gaddafi.

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