NATO protects Libyan people from Qaddafi according to UN mandate

“A U.N. resolution justifies the targeting of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, a senior NATO military official with operational knowledge of the Libya mission told CNN Thursday,” CNN reports.

The officer declined to comment on whether Gaddafi was being targeted by NATO's airstrikes.

A U.N. mandate in March paved the way for NATO to carry out a campaign in Libya to protect civilians targeted by Gaddafi, the Global Post is writing.

The alliance said it was acting in the skies over Libya purely in accordance with the U.N. mandate to protect the Libyan people from Qaddafi. The resolution did not include any involvement in post-conflict peacekeeping, the Fox News said.

"For Qaddafi, it is no longer a question of if he goes but when he goes," Fogh Rasmussen said at a meeting of the defense ministers from the 28 members of the North Atlantic military alliance.

"We do not see a lead role for NATO in Libya once this crisis is over," he said. "We see the United Nations playing a lead role in the post-Qaddafi, post-conflict scenario," Fogh Rasmussen said the source reports.

NATO has recently stepped up its campaign and began using attack helicopters to intensify its strikes. The French and British helicopters were seen as a serious attempt to escalate pressure on Gaddafi, the Financial Times reports.