The Hill News

The United States military is leading the international coalition's air strikes on Libya, Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Sunday, but will "hand off that leadership in the next few days."

As part of the coalition effort which involved British and French assets, U.S. ships and planes have hit Col. Moammar Gadhafi's air defenses, as well as attacking military ground equipment.

"What we did certainly is we took out his radars -- his ability for the most part to attack us from the ground -- that's what you do when you set up a no-fly zone," Mullen said on NBC's "Meet the Press." 

While describing the action as "very limited," the U.S.-led strikes did go further. 

"Some of the engagements yesterday involved hitting his forces on the ground in the vicinity of Benghazi," Mullen said. "Clearly the objective will be to attack those forces and ensure they are not able to attack the innocent civilians, which he wa! s doing as recently as yesterday in Benghazi."

Mullen said he expected the American presence at the head of the coalition to be short-lived.

"I would expect us to pass the leadership of the military operation to be led by those in the coalition," Mullen said. "The United States in particular would support with unique capabilities, which could include jamming and intelligence support ... tanker support for the planes, those kinds of things."