Britain and France played "extraordinary" roles in NATO's air war in Libya but the United States provided the critical assets that ensured its success, the US ambassador to NATO said Thursday.
"We're clearly getting near to the end of the operation," said ambassador Ivo Daalder, nearly six months since NATO took over a mission to protect civilians from Moamer Kadhafi's forces.
British and French aircraft flew one-third of some 22,000 sorties while their warplanes hit 40 percent of the 5,000 military targets that NATO destroyed in Libya, Daalder said.
"France and the United Kingdom did an extraodinary job and they were equally indispensable to the success of this operation," Daalder told reporters.
While around half of NATO members contributed military assets to the operation, only eight conducted air strikes: the United States, France, Britain, Canada, Italy, Denmark, Norway and Belgium.
Daalder highlighted the roles played by Belgium, Denmark and Norway, saying that combined they bombed as many targets as France despite their relatively small air forces.
Britain and France spearheaded the air war against Kadhafi's forces in Libya, launching the first salvos under a coalition led by the United States on March 19.
