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In this photo taken on a government-organized tour a view of a destroyed building after it was hit during a NATO airstrike in Tripoli, Libya, Aug. 20, 2011. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)
BRUSSELS - NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Friday that the alliance had agreed to end its seven-month campaign in Libya on Oct. 31.
"We have taken a preliminary decision to end Operation Unified Protector on Oct. 31," Fogh Rasmussen said after a meeting of the alliance's governing body, the North Atlantic Council. "We will take a formal decision early next week."
Diplomat said NATO air patrols are set to continue over Libya in the next 10 days as a precautionary measure to ensure the stability of the new regime. They will gradually be reduced in coming days if there are no further outbreaks of violence.
Rasmussen hailed the success of the operation which started on March 19 with a series of U.S.-led attacks designed to suppress Muammar Qaddafi's formidable air defenses, including missile and radar networks. Libya's former rebels killed Qaddafi on Thursday, and officials had said they expected the aerial operation to end very soon.
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