Wednesday, 23 March 2011

Libya Condemns 'Civilian Deaths' In Strikes

A fourth night of Western air strikes on targets in the Libyan capital killed civilians in a Tripoli suburb, a government spokesman told Sky News.

"Last night, in the early morning attack... south of Tripoli a family house was destroyed, a little girl was killed - it has been running on Libyan TV," said Moussa Ibrahim.
However, the regime has still not shown foreign journalists in Tripoli any evidence of civilian casualties in bombing and missile attacks by British, US and French forces.
On Tuesday, reporters were taken to see a naval base near the capital where they were shown burnt-out missile carriers and two craters.


Mr Ibrahim insisted that the Libyan government was doing all it could to protect civilians, unlike the West.
"No-one else is doing anything to protect civilians. The international community, as you call it, wants to protect civilians (only) in the east," he said.
"We stopped all military operations, we called for observers to come and see on the ground and check that we are not killing anyone - we have never killed anyone."
The comments, however, came as reports continued to emerge of heavy fighting in Misratah, about 130 miles east of Tripoli.
Dozens of people have been killed in heavy shelling in recent days as tanks and snipers were deployed in the city, witnesses said.
Mr Ibrahim said that rather than protecting civilians as set out in the UN mandate authorising the military action in Libya, Western governments were actually providing "air cover" for the rebels.
"Remember the rebels never announced a ceasefire, they refused to announce a ceasefire and now they are advancing out of Benghazi and marching for Ajdabiyah - 200km of advancements."
Since the air strikes began, rebel fighters have been able to leave their stronghold at Benghazi for Ajdabiyah, which they had to abandon during an earlier advance by Gaddafi's forces.
On Wednesday, pro-Gaddafi troops attacked a few hundred rebels gathered on the city's outskirts. The rebels fired back with Katyusha rockets but have found themselves outgunned.
Mr Ibrahim asked: "Why is no one talking about these rebels? They are armed militias and we accuse them of killing civilians."

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