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BENGHAZI, Libya – U.S. Sen. John McCain called for increased military aid Friday for Libya's rebels, including weapons, training and close air support for the opposition's battle to oust Moammar Gadhafi.
A day after the U.S. began flying armed drones to bolster NATO firepower and try to break a battlefield stalemate with Gadhafi's forces, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee gave a full-throated endorsement of the rebels.
The United States and other nations should recognize the rebels' political leadership as the "legitimate voice of the Libyan people," McCain said.
He called the rebels "patriots" with no links to al-Qaida, in contrast to what some critics have suggested, and he said they should receive Gadhafi assets frozen by other countries.
The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, added that although the timing was hard to predict, the eventual ouster of Gadhafi and his family from power "is certain."
In the besieged western city of Misrata, meanwhile, rebels raised their tricolor flag atop an eight-story building in celebration after driving pro-government snipers out of the structure on Thursday. The building commands a strategic view of the central part of Libya's third-largest city and the key main thoroughfare of Tripoli Street. The snipers had terrorized residents and pinned down rebel fighters.
As a result, the number of civilian causalities dropped dramatically Friday for the first time in several weeks, said one rebel who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared retaliation.
"Spirits are high but the military situation is still unknown," he said. "The rebels easily entered yesterday, so it was clear that the Gadhafi forces quickly withdrew."
Hundreds of people have been killed as government forces have attacked the city of 300,000 people, with NATO's air campaign largely unable to strike at the attackers because of their proximity to civilians — a predicament the drones could help resolve.
A day after the U.S. began flying armed drones to bolster NATO firepower and try to break a battlefield stalemate with Gadhafi's forces, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee gave a full-throated endorsement of the rebels.
The United States and other nations should recognize the rebels' political leadership as the "legitimate voice of the Libyan people," McCain said.
He called the rebels "patriots" with no links to al-Qaida, in contrast to what some critics have suggested, and he said they should receive Gadhafi assets frozen by other countries.
The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, added that although the timing was hard to predict, the eventual ouster of Gadhafi and his family from power "is certain."
In the besieged western city of Misrata, meanwhile, rebels raised their tricolor flag atop an eight-story building in celebration after driving pro-government snipers out of the structure on Thursday. The building commands a strategic view of the central part of Libya's third-largest city and the key main thoroughfare of Tripoli Street. The snipers had terrorized residents and pinned down rebel fighters.
As a result, the number of civilian causalities dropped dramatically Friday for the first time in several weeks, said one rebel who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared retaliation.
"Spirits are high but the military situation is still unknown," he said. "The rebels easily entered yesterday, so it was clear that the Gadhafi forces quickly withdrew."
Hundreds of people have been killed as government forces have attacked the city of 300,000 people, with NATO's air campaign largely unable to strike at the attackers because of their proximity to civilians — a predicament the drones could help resolve.
