Nato, Moammar Gadhafi | featured news

After seven months of an aerial bombing campaign that helped depose longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi, NATO officially ends its mission in Libya on Monday.

NATO is to formally decide on Wednesday whether to end its mission over Libya now that Muammar Gaddafi is dead and buried and the country's new leaders have declared the nation "liberated".

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said on Wednesday that his withdrawal from his Bab al-Aziziya headquarters was a "tactical move" after the compound was leveled by 64 NATO air strikes.

Muammar Gaddafi urged Libyans on Monday to free the country from "NATO and traitors," as rebels in the west began to strangle a major lifeline to his capital.

The United States and Spain said Saturday they won't let Moammar Gadhafi's threats of retaliatory attacks in Europe deter their mission to protect Libyan civilians.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi threatens attacks in Europe if NATO continues its air campaign against his forces.

The Libyan government on Sunday renewed its offer to hold a vote on whether Muammar Gaddafi should stay in power, a proposal unlikely to interest his opponents but which could widen differences inside NATO.

A NATO airstrike hit an area near Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi's compound in the capital again Tuesday, as military leaders voiced concerns about sustaining the operations if the alliance mission drags on.

It is time to start planning for what to do in Libya after leader Moammar Gadhafi's departure "because Gadhafi's reign of terror is coming to an end," NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Wednesday.

After a series of NATO strikes, rebel forces retook the town of Yafran on Monday, breaking a siege by forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.