No boots on the ground in Libya, NATO says

NATO won't put troops on the ground in Libya to keep order once the civil war ends, the alliance said Wednesday.

And the United Nations would play a "lead role" in the north African country once Muammar Gaddafi was no longer in power, said NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen after a meeting in Brussels of defense ministers from the 28-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

The comments, reported by the AP, came a day after NATO's heaviest bombardment of Libya — a rare daytime series of air strikes that rattled the Gaddafi's compound in the capital Tripoli.

A single bunker-busting bomb destroyed around seven buildings in the capital, in an attack Reuters described as the most sustained bombardment of the Libyan capital since Western forces began air strikes in March.

NATO said it flew 66 "strike sorties" Tuesday and hit five command and control facilities in Tripoli. Under questioning, Rasmussen insisted that the alliance was adhering to its U.N. mandate only to protect civilians from attacks by Gaddafi's forces, the AP writes.

In response, Gaddafi vowed to fight to the end in an address broadcast live on state TV.

Rasmussen said Wednesday: "For Gaddafi, it is no longer a question of if he goes but when he goes. It may take weeks, but it could happen tomorrow and when he goes the international community has to be ready."

And: "We do not see a lead role for NATO in Libya once this crisis is over. We see the United Nations playing a lead role in the post-Gaddafi, post-conflict scenario."

In Libya's west on Wednesday, thousands of troops loyal to Gaddafi advanced on the rebel-held city of Misurata, shelling it from three sides in attacks that killed at least 12 rebels, Reuters reports.

"Misurata is under heavy shelling … Gaddafi forces are shelling Misurata from three sides: east, west and south," rebel spokesman Hassan al-Misrati told Reuters from inside the town. "He has sent thousands of troops from all sides and they are trying to enter the city. They are still outside, though."

According to Reuters:

Gaddafi's troops and the rebels have been deadlocked for weeks, with neither side able to hold territory on a road between Ajdabiyah in the east, which Gaddafi's forces shelled on Monday, and the Gaddafi-held oil town of Brega further west.

Rebels control the east of Libya, the western city of Misurata and the range of western mountains near the border with Tunisia. They have been unable to advance on the capital against Gaddafi's better-equipped forces.