Jeremy Sapienza / AntiWar.com & Damien McElroy / The Telegraph – 2011-08-09 12:42:03
Gadhafi Officials: NATO Bombs Kill 85 Civilians
Jeremy Sapienza / AntiWar.com
(August 9, 2011) — In what could be the single deadliest NATO attack since the Western war on Libya’s Gadhafi regime began in May, 85 civilians were killed in a cluster of farmhouses in Majar, according to Libyan officials. The village is about 90 miles east of the capital, Tripoli.
A Gadhafi spokesman said 33 children, 32 women, and 20 men were killed in the attack.
NATO says its planes bombed a “military staging area,†and if there were any casualties, they are likely military personnel or “mercenaries.†Colonel Roland Lavoie, the alliance’s spokesperson in Brussels, said the strikes aim to protect Libya’s civilians from attack by Gadhafi’s forces. The Gadhafi regime denies attacking civilians, though during the initial uprising it undeniably did kill many protesting civilians.
A Reuters reporter saw 30 bodies at a hospital in nearby Zlitan, some of which contained the remains of children. “They (NATO) do not differentiate between soldiers, children and old people,†said medical student Abdulkader Al-Hawali, in residency at the hospital.
NATO has admitted to killing civilians in the recent past. Just last week, in Zlitan, NATO bombs killed a physics teacher and his family. Some two weeks ago, NATO bombed a Zlitan hospital, killing seven. And on June 21, just two days after admitting to killing nine civilians in an “accidental†strike in central Tripoli, NATO denied and then admitted an attack that Gadhafi officials say killed 15 civilians.
NATO also bombed a Libyan frigate in Tripoli harbor this morning after weapons were observed being unloaded, the alliance said.
NATO Accused of Killing Family in Botched Bombing Raid
Damien McElroy / The Telegraph
ZLITAN, Libya (August 4, 2011) — The alleged strike on a two-storey home in the suburbs of the town of Zlitan, 160 miles east of Tripoli, killed the wife and two children of Mustafa Naji, a physics teacher and sparked an eruption of local anger against the bombing campaign.
The regime of Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi seized on the attack to press claims innocent locals have been killed by Nato’s bombs.
Nato’s efforts to assist advances by rebels from central Misurata have embroiled the alliance in an urban war for control of Zlitan. Bombed schools and flattened food warehouses are now in evidence in the town and they are being used by Gaddafi loyalists as staging grounds for continued attacks on the rebel enclave.
Despite the use of fixed wing aircraft and helicopter gunships and despite rebel claims that the town had fallen earlier this week, fighting raged yesterday on Zlitan’s eastern fringes. A handful of loud explosions were accompanied by the whine of jet engines on Nato aircraft.
The Naji home stood ten miles from the front line in the apparently quiet suburb of Kaim. Regime officials said the family were ordinary people who had feasted just hours before to celebrate the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
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Its concrete floors had collapsed and the rooms were destroyed. By midmorning it was impossible to tell if the building had ever been used by Gaddafi’s military unlike the nearby Law College and school where the bombed buildings were littered with military paraphernalia including combat fatigues and log books.
Ibtisam, the mother of two children, Mohammad 5 and Muttasim, 3, were buried within hours at an emotional funeral ceremony next to a local mosque.
“These people were not fighters, there is no military in this neighbourhood,” said Ali Adil, a lawyer and neighbour. “Nato say they are protecting civilians but they are turning their weapons on us. The UN Security Council should investigate this.” A nephew pulled off the funerary shrouds to reveal the bloodied faces of the dead.
“Those that are fighting with Nato are traitors against their country,” said Mohammad Ali Berber, a cousin of the victim. “We should volunteer to go to the front line and finish it. We will never forgive.” Nato bore the brunt of the blame for the attack.
Mr Adil said that he had seen helicopters in action attacking areas where there were no soldiers deployed. “It’s an unfair war using this technology against us.”
A Nato spokesman said the organisation had struck a target at 6.30am in Zlitan and that it was investigating the allegations of civilian casualties.
The UN Security Council resolution authorising the Nato campaign to use military air power to stop Col Gaddafi’s regime killing his own people to crush a nationwide uprising.
Moussa Ibrahim, the Gaddafi regime spokesman, said the attack on Zlitan was one of many Nato atrocities. “Yet another crime of Nato against Libyan civilians has taken place,” he said. “No one is safe from Nato.” Despite Misurata rebels claims that they had taken the centre of Zlitan there has not yet been heavy downtown fighting.
But as the fighting has encroached, locals have fled elsewhere. Apartment blocks along the main boulevard, Sahili Rd, are deserted. Only a handful of shops remain open.
However the main impediment to the fall of the town is the hatred of local tribes towards Misuratans. The proximity of the two towns belies a deep-rooted antipathy.
Many local families are the descendants of slaves captured by the pirates that operated from Misurata in the 19th century.
“I have no friends or acquaintances from Misurata, I know nobody from there,” said Khalifa Misha, a schools inspector. “They have no right to come here. We will resist this conquest until the last drop of blood.”
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