NATO To End Libya Mission on Oct. 31

With Gadhafi dead and fighting all but over, NATO forces will go home after seven months of bombing.

Halloween will mark the end of NATO's aerial mission over Libya, owing to a vote by the UN Security Council to bring an end to the no-fly zone that was enacted back in March. Citing the mission, led by Canadian Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard, as "one of the most successful in NATO's history," Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the alliance's secretary general, said planes will continue sorties throughout the weekend just to make sure there aren't any more pockets of Gadhafi loyalists or former rebels reveling in their victory stirring up trouble. All told, NATO aircraft, including a handful of Canadian Forces CF-18s, flew 26,000 sorties and destroyed just shy of 6,000 military targets. No coalition forces were killed, and NATO says they've kept civilian deaths to a minimum throughout the campaign. Official numbers for civilians that died at the hands of NATO range from around 50 to 140, with the bulk of those 140 coming from a bombing in Ziltan that Gadhafi officials said killed about 85 civilians. All told, 19 states took part in the mission, including Canada, the U.S., France, the U.K., Norway, Denmark, Turkey, Greece, Spain, Jordan, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.