2011 military intervention in Libya On 19 March 2011 , a multi - state coalition began a military intervention in Libya to implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 , which was taken in response to events during the Libyan civil war , and military operations began , with US and British naval forces firing over 110 Tomahawk cruise missiles , the French Air Force , British Royal Air Force , and Royal Canadian Air Force undertaking sorties across Libya and a naval blockade by Coalition forces . Air strikes against Libyan Army tanks and vehicles by French jets were since confirmed . The official names for the interventions by the coalition members are Opération Harmattan by France ; Operation Ellamy by the United Kingdom ; Operation Mobile for the Canadian participation and Operation Odyssey Dawn for the United States . From the beginning of the intervention , the initial coalition of Belgium , Canada , Denmark , France , Italy , Norway , Qatar , Spain , UK and US expanded to nineteen states , with newer states mostly enforcing the no - fly zone and naval blockade or providing military logistical assistance . The effort was initially largely led by France and the United Kingdom , with command shared with the United States . NATO took control of the arms embargo on 23 March , named Operation Unified Protector . An attempt to unify the military command of the air campaign ( whilst keeping political and strategic control with a small group ) , first failed over objections by the French , German , and Turkish governments . On 24 March , NATO agreed to take control of the no - fly zone , while command of targeting ground units remains with coalition forces . The handover occurred on 31 March 2011 at 06 : 00 UTC ( 08 : 00 local time ) . NATO flew 26 , 500 sorties since it took charge of the Libya mission on 31 March 2011 . Fighting in Libya ended in late October following the death of Muammar Gaddafi , and NATO stated it would end operations over Libya on 31 October 2011 . Libya ' s new government requested that its mission be extended to the end of the year , but on 27 October , the Security Council voted to end NATO ' s mandate for military action on 31 October . Proposal for the no - fly zone . Both Libyan officials and international states and organizations called for a no - fly zone over Libya in light of allegations that Muammar Gaddafi ' s military had conducted airstrikes against Libyan rebels in the Libyan civil war . Enforcement . Initial NATO planning for a possible no - fly zone took place in late February and early March , especially by NATO members France and the United Kingdom . France and the UK were early supporters of a no - fly zone and have sufficient airpower to impose a no - fly zone over the rebel - held areas , although they might need additional assistance for a more extensive exclusion zone . The US had the air assets necessary to enforce a no - fly zone , but was cautious to support such an action prior to obtaining a legal basis for violating Libya ' s sovereignty . However , due to the sensitive nature of military action by the US against an Arab nation , the US sought Arab participation in the enforcement of a no - fly zone . At a congressional hearing , United States Secretary of Defense Robert Gates explained that " a no - fly zone begins with an attack on Libya to destroy the air defences . . . and then you can fly planes around the country and not worry about our guys being shot down . But that ' s the way it starts . " On 19 March , the deployment of French fighter jets over Libya began , and other states began their individual operations . Phase One started the same day with the involvement of the United States , United Kingdom , France , Italy and Canada . On 24 March , NATO ambassadors agreed that NATO would take command of the no - fly zone enforcement , while other military operations remained the responsibility of the group of states previously involved , with NATO expected to take control as early as 26 March . The decision was made after meetings of NATO members to resolve disagreements over whether military operations in Libya should include attacks on ground forces . The decision will create a two - level power structure overseeing military operations . In charge politically will be a committee , led by NATO , that includes all states participating in enforcing the no - fly zone , while NATO alone will be responsible for military action . Royal Canadian Air Force Lieutenant - General Charles Bouchard has been appointed to command the NATO military mission . After the death of Muammar Gaddafi on 20 October 2011 , it was announced that the NATO mission would end on 31 October . Operation names . Before NATO took full command of operations at 06 : 00 GMT on 31 March 2011 , the military intervention in the form of a no - fly zone and naval blockade was split between different national operations : Forces committed . These are the forces committed in alphabetical order . Reaction . Since the start of the campaign , there have been allegations of violating the limits imposed upon the intervention by Resolution 1973 and by US law . At the end of May 2011 , Western troops were captured on film in Libya , despite Resolution 1973 specifically forbidding " a foreign occupation force of any form on any part of Libyan territory " . In the article however , it reports that armed Westerners but not Western troops were on the ground . On 10 June , US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates criticized some of the NATO member nations for their efforts , or lack thereof , to participate in the intervention in Libya . Gates singled out Germany , Poland , Spain , Turkey , and the Netherlands for criticism . He praised Canada , Norway and Denmark , saying that although those three countries had only provided twelve percent of the aircraft to the operation , their aircraft had conducted one - third of the strikes . On 9 August , the head of UNESCO , Irina Bokova deplored a NATO strike on Libyan State TV , Al - Jamahiriya , that killed 3 journalists and wounded others . Bokova declared that media outlets should not be the target of military activities . On 11 August , after the 9 August NATO airstrike on Majer that allegedly killed 85 civilians , UN Secretary - General Ban Ki - moon called on all sides to do as much as possible to avoid killing innocent people . Responsibility to protect . The military intervention in Libya has been cited by the Council on Foreign Relations as an example of the responsibility to protect policy adopted by the UN at the 2005 World Summit . According to Gareth Evans , " [ t ] he international military intervention ( SMH ) in Libya is not about bombing for democracy or Muammar Gaddafi ' s head . Legally , morally , politically , and militarily it has only one justification : protecting the country ' s people . " However , the Council also noted that the policy had been used only in Libya , and not in countries such as Côte d ' Ivoire , undergoing a political crisis at the time , or in response to protests in Yemen . A CFR expert , Stewert Patrick , said that " There is bound to be selectivity and inconsistency in the application of the responsibility to protect norm given the complexity of national interests at stake in . . . the calculations of other major powers involved in these situations . " In January 2012 , independent human rights groups published a report describing alleged human rights violations and accusing NATO of war crimes . Criticism . Some critics of Western military interdiction suggested that resources — not democratic or humanitarian concerns — were the real impetus for the intervention . Gaddafi ' s Libya , despite its relatively small population , was known to possess vast resources , particularly in the form of oil reserves and financial capital . Libya is a member of OPEC and one of the world ' s largest oil producers . It was producing roughly 1 . 6 million barrels a day before the war , nearly 70 percent of them through the state - owned National Oil Corporation . Additionally , the country ' s sovereign wealth fund , the Libyan Investment Authority , was the largest such fund in the world , controlling assets worth approximately US $ 56 billion , including over 100 tons of gold reserve s in the Central Bank of Libya . Accusations of imperialism on the part of NATO and the West were voiced by many leaders of states that had traditionally aligned themselves with the Communist bloc and subsequently Russia , including : Iran ' s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei ( who said he supported the rebels but not Western intervention ) , Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez ( who referred to Gaddafi as a " martyr " ) , and President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe ( who referred to the Western nations as " vampires " ) , as well as the governments of Raúl Castro in Cuba , Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua , Kim Jong - il in North Korea , Hifikepunye Pohamba in Namibia , and others . Gaddafi himself referred to the intervention as a " colonial crusade . . . capable of unleashing a full scale war " , a sentiment that was echoed by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin : " < nowiki > [ < / nowiki > UNSC Resolution 1973 < nowiki > ] < / nowiki > is defective and flawed . . . It allows everything . It resembles medieval calls for crusades . " President Hu Jintao of the People ' s Republic of China said , " Dialogue and other peaceful means are the ultimate solutions to problems , " and added , " If military action brings disaster to civilians and causes a humanitarian crisis , then it runs counter to the purpose of the UN resolution . " Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was critical of the intervention as well , rebuking the coalition in a speech at the UN in September 2011 . Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi , despite the substantial role his country played in the NATO mission , also spoke out against getting involved : " I had my hands tied by the vote of the parliament of my country . But I was against and I am against this intervention which will end in a way that no - one knows " and added " This wasn ' t a popular uprising because Gaddafi was loved by his people , as I was able to see when I went to Libya . " Russia ' s foreign broadcasting service , RT , has postulated that NATO intervention may have been motivated by Gaddafi ' s attempts to establish a unified federation of African states that would use the gold dinar as its currency and demand that foreign importers of African oil pay in gold . Despite its stated opposition to NATO intervention , Russia abstained from voting on Resolution 1973 instead of exercising its veto power as a permanent member of the Security Council ; four other powerful nations also abstained from the vote — India , China , Germany , and Brazil — but of that group only China has the same veto power . Moreover , criticisms have been made on the way the operation was led . According to Michael Kometer and Stephen Wright , the outcome of the Libyan intervention was reached by default rather than by design . It appears that there was an important lack of consistent political guidance caused particularly by the vagueness of the UN mandate and the ambiguous consensus among the NATO - led coalition . This lack of clear political guidance was translated into an incoherent military planning on the operational level . Such a gap may impact the future NATO ’ s operations that will probably face trust issues . Costs . On 22 March 2011 , BBC News presented a breakdown of the likely costs to the UK of the mission . Journalist Francis Tusa , editor of Defence Analysis , estimated that flying a Tornado GR4 would cost about £35 , 000 an hour , so the cost of patrolling one sector of Libyan airspace would be £2M – £3M per day . Conventional airborne missiles would cost £800 , 000 each and Tomahawk cruise missiles £750 , 000 each . Professor Malcolm Charmers of the Royal United Services Institute similarly suggested that a single cruise missile would cost about £500 , 000 , while a single Tornado sortie would cost about £30 , 000 in fuel alone . If a Tornado was downed the replacement cost would be upwards of £50m . By 22 March the US and UK had already fired more than 110 cruise missiles . George Osborne had said that the MoD estimate of the operation cost was " tens rather than hundreds of millions " . On 4 April Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton said that the RAF was planning to continue operations over Libya for at least six months . The cost for Greece was $ 1 milion daily .