2011 military intervention in Libya

On 19 March 2011, a NATO-led coalition began a military intervention into the ongoing Libyan Civil War to implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 (UNSCR 1973). The UN Security Council passed the resolution with ten votes in favour and five abstentions, with the stated intent to have "an immediate ceasefire in Libya, including an end to the current attacks against civilians, which it said might constitute 'crimes against humanity' ... [imposing] a ban on all flights in the country's airspace — a no-fly zone — and tightened sanctions on the Muammar Gaddafi regime and its supporters."

The initial coalition members of Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, Norway, Qatar, Spain, UK and US expanded to nineteen states, with later members mostly enforcing the no-fly zone and naval blockade or providing military logistical assistance. The effort was initially led by France and the United Kingdom, with command shared with the United States. Italy only joined the coalition on the condition that NATO took on overall leadership of the mission instead of individual countries. NATO took control of the arms embargo on 23 March, named Operation Unified Protector. An attempt to unify the military command of the air campaign first failed over objections by the French, German, and Turkish governments. On 24 March, NATO agreed to take control of the no-fly zone, while command of targeting ground units remained with individual coalition forces. The handover occurred on 31 March 2011.

On the intervention's first day on 19 March, American and British naval forces fired over 110 Tomahawk cruise missiles, and imposed a naval blockade. The French Air Force, British Royal Air Force, and Royal Canadian Air Force also undertook sorties across Libya. The intervention did not employ foreign ground troops, with the exception of special forces, which were not covered by the UN resolution. NATO flew 26,500 sorties over eight months, including 7,000 bombing sorties targeting Gaddafi's forces.

The Libyan government's response to the campaign was ineffectual, with Gaddafi's forces failing to shoot down any NATO aircraft, despite the country extensively possessing anti-aircraft systems. The conflict ended in late October following the killing of Muammar Gaddafi and the overthrow of his government. Libya's new government requested that NATO's mission be extended to the end of 2011, however the Security Council unanimously voted to end NATO's mandate on 31 October. NATO's rationale for the intervention faced criticism, notably in a report released by the British parliament in 2016, which concluded that the UK government "failed to identify that the threat to civilians was overstated and that the rebels included a significant Islamist element."

The official names for the interventions by the coalition members were Opération Harmattan by France; Operation Ellamy by the United Kingdom; Operation Mobile for the Canadian participation and Operation Odyssey Dawn for the United States.