UK Clears Attack Helicopters To Join Libya Campaign

By Keith Weir

DEAUVILLE, France

(Reuters) - Britain has said its helicopters can fly sorties over Libya as it seeks to raise the pressure on Muammar Gaddafi to step aside, British officials said on Thursday.

French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet said on Monday that Britain would start deploying attack helicopters in Libya along with France as part of NATO's operation there.

However, Britain had not confirmed that until now. British ministers gave clearance in principle for the use of Apache helicopters on Thursday and NATO could now call on them.

Gaddafi, in power for 41 years, was "on the run" and spending each night in a different hospital to try to shield himself from NATO bombings, British diplomatic sources said.

They provided no evidence and it was not possible to obtain independent corroboration for the allegation. Reporters in Tripoli have seen Libyan civilians gathered at government facilities, declaring their willingness to defend Gaddafi.

"He's moving from one place that we won't bomb to another place that we won't bomb," one of the sources said.

The British sources said the Libyan leader was not injured but said his administration might be beginning to fracture.

Libyan officials, who have said Gaddafi is running the country and defying the Western attacks, had no immediate comment.

Prime Minister David Cameron, who is attending the G8 summit in the French resort of Deauville, has called for Gaddafi to stand down. The use of Apache attack helicopters, which are more vulnerable to ground defences than the high-speed jets used up to now, is designed to try to hasten Gaddafi's exit after air raids from higher altitude that began in March.

Britain is expected to make four Apache helicopters available. They are currently on board the British naval ship Ocean, which is already in the Mediterranean.

The U.S.-made Apaches, designed to hunt and destroy tanks, carry rockets, Hellfire missiles and a chain gun. They have a two-man crew.

France and Britain have played a prominent role in the air campaign against Gaddafi's rule which they say enforces a United Nations resolution to protect civilians.

The conflict appears to have reached a stalemate, with the rebels occupying the east of the country from their stronghold in Benghazi but Gaddafi remaining in power in Tripoli.

The British diplomatic sources said they believed that Gaddafi's grip on power was weakening.

Many of Gaddafi's senior commanders had stopped using their telephones, one of the sources said, for fear that their calls were being listened to and there was a sense that the "regime was feeling the pressure and beginning to fracture."

"The judgement we are making is that means it is the right time to turn up the pressure and try to make it tell."