20110423
reuters

MISRATA, Libya, April 23 - Washington should deploy ground attack aircraft against Muammar Gaddafi's forces and recognise the rebels, leading U.S. Senator John McCain said, becoming highest-profile Western politician to visit rebel-held Libya.

Libya's government indicated late on Friday it might adjust its strategy in the besieged city of Misrata, limiting the role of the army and instead sending tribesmen to battle insurgents.

The visit by McCain, the senior Republican politician who ran against Barack Obama for the presidency in 2008, raises the political stakes over a war that the top U.S. military officer acknowledged was headed towards stalemate.

Obama and the leaders of France and Britain say they will not stop their air campaign, now in its second month, until Gaddafi is removed from power. But the bombing has so far failed to tip the balance of power against Gaddafi's forces.

Since the initial days of the strikes, Obama has ordered his troops to take on a backseat military role, reluctant to become embroiled in a third war in a Muslim country and leaving ground strikes to Washington's NATO allies.

This week U.S. forces said they would send drones to carry out ground strikes. In the rebels' eastern stronghold of Benghazi, McCain said Washington should use low-flying attack planes, among the most feared tactical weapons in its arsenal.

"It is still incredibly puzzling to me that the two most accurate close air support weapons systems, the A-10 and the AC-130, have been taken out of the fight," he said on Friday.

In Tripoli, the government's press office said NATO forces had struck the centre of the capital early on Saturday. Reuters correspondents did not hear any loud explosions but heard jets fly over the city, rattling windows.