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STUTTGART, Germany, 

Mar 25, 2011 — BBC World's Julian Marshall, interviews Gen. Carter Ham, commander US Africa Command, via the Defense Video and Imagery Distribution System (DVIDS), regarding coalition operations in Libya, 25 March 2011. Of note is the continuing concern pertaining to the command relationships of the three fold mission, two parts of which are focused on in this interview; the no-fly-zone and protecting civilians.

The complete transcript follows:

MARSHALL: You are listening to the BBC World Service. I am Julian Marshall, with news now, we return to the Libya Crisis, I am joined now by General Carter Ham, commander of US Africa Command, which has taken the lead in coordinating and implementing the no-fly-zone over Libya. He joins us now from Africa Command's headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. Now how close are you to securing both strands of the mission namely securing a no-fly-zone over Libya and secondly protecting civilians against attacks from Col. Qadhafi's forces?

GEN HAM: Julian, on the first side of the mission, the no-fly-zone, we have an effective no-fly-zone in place now. Participants from many nations executing this and we have since the initiation of operations on the 19th of March we have seen only one violation of that no-fly-zone by a Libyan military aircraft and that aircraft was engaged. So the no-fly-zone is effective and the next step is to transition the command of the no-fly-zone and that will occur this weekend. The second part of the mission is the "protect the civilians" mission which is currently being executed under coalition authority, under my command, and our joint task force commander, Admiral Sam Locklear. NATO, it is my understanding that NATO has accepted, in principle, to undertake that mission and they will discuss, in the coming days, how and when to transition that mission. That's the toughest mission we have at present.

MARSHALL: Could I repeat my question which is how close are you to ensuring that civilians are safe in Libya from attacks by Col. Qadhafi's forces?

GEN HAM: We have had some great success already. It is important to remember that when we started this operation that regime forces were threatening to assault into the town, into the city of Benghazi and the hundreds of thousands of the people who live there, those people now no longer live under threat of regime attack, so that I think is successful. But to be sure, in other places in Libya, in Ajdabiya, in Misurata, in Zintan, that there are civilians who today are threatened by regime forces. It's my mission, our mission, to do all we can to protect those civilians and we are taking that mission very, very seriously.

MARSHALL: Even as I am speaking to you there are reports that rebels are entering the city of Adjabiya, which previously had been under the control of Col. Qadhafi's forces, which still leaves towns like Misurata and Zintan, rebel held towns that are besieged by Col. Qadhafi's forces and here the mission, doesn't it, becomes more complicated? Youuâ?ve got Col. Qadhafi's tanks and artillery among the civilian population, how are you going to deal with that?

GEN HAM: It is the most difficult mission that we have, when we have the regime forces attacking civilians and they are in very close contact and they are in areas for which we have to be very conscious of causing additional civilian casualties. We try to the very best that we can to attack with precision and we are always conscious about limiting or not causing civilian causalities. It does us no good to take out a regime tank but kills the very people we are charged with protecting so this is a very complex mission set where regime forces are visible to us and not in close contact we have had great success and we have seen some of that around Ajdabiya and in other places. It is much more complex and we are seeking ways to be more precise in our application of firepower against targets that threaten civilians from within built up areas.

MARSHALL: Gen. Ham can you can just clarify one thing for me. As of now, this seems to be a divided mission, on the one hand you have the US , France and Britain taking a lead role in protecting civilians from attack but command of the no-fly-zone operation has passed, or will pass to NATO, why is it necessary to have that division?

GEN HAM: Well, from a US standpoint my president made it clear at the outset that the US military would be focused on a specific set of missions of enforcing the rules of UN Security Council Resolution 1973, and then it would be limited duration and that we would transition responsibility to NATO or some other international organization. NATO has agreed upon that. The good news is that we have decades of interaction with NATO, we know how to conduct these operations. So in reality as we shift command of the no-fly- zone to a NATO officer, a great Canadian officer in whom I have great confidence, that I know him, and eventually transition the protect mission as well. Those procedures will work out quite effectively and then they will serve under another NATO commander and of course ultimately under SACEUR [Supreme Allied Commander, Europe], Admiral Jim Stavridis. It is one of those situations that frankly it works much better than it briefs if I may say that.

MARSHALL: General Carter Ham., commander of US Africa command, many thanks for being with us.