London - Upi
NATO said Friday it thought it was just going after loyalists in Thursday\'s Sirte bombing run and was surprised Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi was caught up. Gadhafi died sometime after the 8:30 a.m. strike. The Los Angeles Times reported from London NATO issued a statement saying the alliance had targeted 75 loyalist vehicles \"carrying a substantial amount of weapons and ammunition\" that could have been used against civilians. Eleven of the vehicles were destroyed, the Times said. \"At the time of the strike, NATO did not know that Gadhafi was in the convoy. NATO\'s intervention was conducted solely to reduce the threat toward the civilian population,\" the statement said. \"We later learned from open sources and Allied intelligence that Gadhafi was in the convoy and that the strike likely contributed to his capture,\" the statement said. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Thursday the alliance would bring its mission to a close now that Gadhafi is out of the picture.