By Jason Ditz 

NATO officials are reporting plans to further escalate the war in Libya tonight, saying that Monday’s strike against Moammar Gadhafi’s compound was not an assassination attempt but rather the first in a string of new strikes.

The White House confirmed that President Obama has been briefed about the escalation plans. Administration officials are said to have supported more attacks in Tripoli because “we want to make sure he knows there is a war going on.”

“We don’t want to kill him or make a martyr out of him,” NATO officials insisted. Instead they say the strikes are an effort to “change his calculus.” The US denied any role in the latest strikes, beyond their usual “support” role.

Since the war began in Mid-March, officials have differed on whether or not the UN authorization for a no-fly zone implicitly allows the assassination of Gadhafi. Some officials are openly advocating the killing no matter what the legal basis, arguing that it might break the “stalemate” the war has fallen into.

This article first appeared on AntiWar.com.

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