Experts: NATO lacks Libya plan

MISURATA, Libya, June 24 (UPI) -- Defense analysts say NATO, which is nearing its 100th day of bombing in Libya, lacks a clear line to attack to bring down Moammar Gadhafi's regime.

Experts including Shashank Joshi of British think-tank Royal United Services Institute said after the Libyan army began sustained rocket attacks in the city of Misurata that NATO lacks a plan to bring down the Gadhafi regime, which began a campaign of violence against a popular uprising in February, the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph reported Friday.

"This campaign is about inflicting pain on the regime but there is no precedent where air power alone has taken a government down without encircling the city," Joshi said.

Abdulla Jawid at Misurata's main medical center criticized NATO's strategy.

"Every day they target a different area of the city. Now we are all wondering (if) the mission of NATO is to protect civilians. But every day they bomb, everyday there is at least one victim," Jawid said. "We are not protected. I haven't left the hospital since Feb. 19 as there are just too many casualties."

A senior diplomat with the British Foreign Office told the Telegraph the Gadhafi regime is destined to fall.

"The momentum has shifted irrevocably against Gaddafi and those around him," he said. "The anger against him is simmering. The question is not if he will go, but when."