The Hill News

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Sunday that the U.S. should help rebels in Libya, even if Moammar Gadhafi's ouster isn't particularly crucial to U.S. interests.

"I'm not sure it's in our vital interests for him to go," McConnell said on CBS' "Face the Nation," but he advocated being "helpful" to those fighting for the dictator's overthrow "short of sending in our own military personnel."

On the same program, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) said it was in the national interest for Gadhafi to depart.

"Because if Gadhafi stays there is no question that he will be mischief in the days ahead as he has been in the past," Kerry said. "And, furthermore, I think what is happening all across the Middle East is in our strategic national interest."

McConnell said the no-fly zone proposal buzzing around Capitol Hill is "worth considering."

But the GOP leader cautioned "we're not quite sure who these insurgents are," noting a Guardian report that said rebels in Benghazi captured a small British special forces unit.

Rebels expressed skepticism that the British members were actually there to help: "Gaddafi is bringing in thousands of mercenaries to kill us, most are using foreign passports and how do we know who these people are?" a senior member of the Benghazi revolutionary council told the Guardian.