France sent weapons to Libya’s rebel fighters

FRANCE has sent weapons to Libyan civilians besieged by Muammar Gaddafi’s forces, a military spokesman has said.

It is the first NATO country to publicly announce it has armed rebel fighters.

Col Thierry Burkhard said in Paris the deliveries took place in early June in the western Nafusa mountains when civilians were encircled by Gaddafi’s forces and his government refused to allow a humanitarian aid corridor there.