Report uncovers German military role in Libyan war http://www.irna.ir/ENNewsShow.aspx?NID=30311224&SRCH=1

German military officers are involved in controlling the Libyan no-fly zone, even though the Berlin government voted against such a UN mandate, the Munich-based weekly news magazine Focus reported Saturday.Several high-ranking German air force officers who are part of a key operational staff at the NATO command center in the Turkish city of Izmir, have assumed the control of Libyan airspace, according to Focus.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle had repeatedly said that no German soldiers would participate in the western military mission in Libya. Although Berlin opposes the war in Libya, it is indirectly supporting it by allowing the US to use its German bases for such an assault.  Furthermore, Germany is to send 300 airmen to Afghanistan as part of NATO's AWACS reconnaissance mission in a move geared at freeing up western forces in Afghanistan to move to the Mediterranean Sea for the Libyan conflict.