[1] Two days later, the French Air Force struck an armoured division and artillery pieces arrayed outside Benghazi, the de facto capital of the interim rebel governing authority, beginning international military operations in the Libyan theatre.
[2] NATO forces involved in Operation Unified Protector, the codename for the military intervention in Libya, participated in the Battle of Sirte in which Gaddafi was captured and killed.
"[27] The top officer of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Admiral James G. Stavridis, Supreme Allied Commander Europe, announced that he will recommend that the alliance's Libya air campaign be brought to an end.
[81][82] The death of Gaddafi and the end of the campaign were viewed as a "rare clear-cut victory" for NATO after long operations in Afghanistan and anti-piracy patrols off Somalia.
[86] Christof Heyns, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, called for an international investigation into Gaddafi's death, stating that his killing may have been a war crime.
[87] In its immediate aftermath, the killing of Gaddafi was thought to have significant implications in North Africa and the Middle East, as a critical event in the Arab Spring.
Pundits speculated that it would intensify protests in Syria and Yemen, with French officials also stating that they were "watching the Algerian situation" for potential ramifications from Gaddafi's death.