All of you: Read this awesome! RT @clayclai: Did NATO kill 85 Libyan Villagers As Qaddafi Regime Contends?dailykos.com/story/2011/08/… #Libya #Feb17
The Libyan government said Tuesday that a NATO airstrike near the western city of Zlitan had killed 85 villagers, including children, state television reported - a claim swiftly called into question by the military alliance.
Footage showed what the broadcaster said were the burned bodies of at least three children under the age of 9 in a hospital. It also showed women and children being treated for injuries. The country is to hold a three-day mourning for the deaths, the channel reported.The report said the victims were from the village of Majar, which is near Zlitan, to the east of the capital Tripoli, where NATO forces have been intensifying their strikes on government troops.
However this report was quickly disputed by NATO:
NATO spokesman Col. Roland Lavoie said the Libyan claim of civilian casualties in an airstrike near the western front-line town of Zlitan "was not corroborated by available factual information at the site."
NATO aircraft hit a staging base and military accommodation 10 kilometers (6 miles) south of Zlitan, Lavoie said from the operational command in Naples, Italy. Four buildings and nine vehicles within the compound were struck with precision-guided munitions, he said.
"With our surveillance capabilities, we monitored this military compound very carefully before striking it," Lavoie said. "A number of military or mercenary casualties were expected due to the nature of the activity we monitored.""Our assessment, based on the level of destruction of the buildings, confirms the likelihood of military and mercenary casualties," he said.
@FromJoanneJoanne
#Zlitan Gaddafi 85 Militairy death by #NATO claims explained :twitlonger.com/show/c9j2sf #Libya @Alexbl
RT: 85 ‘CIVILIAN’ DEATHS IN ZLITEN WERE ARMY PERSONNEL : "@NATO had very clear intelligence demonstrating that former farm buildings were being used as a staging point for pro-#Gadhafi forces to conduct attacks against the people of Libya.”
CNN reported the regime claim of the 85 ‘civilian deaths’ today as follows:
QUOTE:
“A Libyan government spokesman said Tuesday that a NATO airstrike has killed 85 civilians near Zlitan, the northwestern Libyan city which has been the target of an intense aerial bombing campaign
Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said the incident happened late Monday night in Majar, a community about 3 miles (5 kilometers) south of Zlitan.
"Dozens of innocent and safe children, woman and old people were martyred in the heinous massacre committed by the colonial crusader NATO alliance as a result of its airstrikes on their homes in #Majar (in Zlitan) while they were asleep," the state news agency JANA reported.
Journalists on a government trip to Zlitan saw at least 25 bodies in the morgue and were told they were killed in airstrikes on five homes, according to CNN's Ivan Watson, who is on the trip. The journalists also saw the ruins of what were described as the homes hit by the strike.”
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/08/09/libya.zlitan/index.html
FIRST POINT – Just because the Gaddafi regime claim ‘civilian deaths’ does not mean it is true:
The #Libya ‘Government’ spokesman - #MoussaIbrahim – or to use his full name [which he never does] - Moussa Ibrahim Al Gaddafi – who like many of Dictator #Gaddafi’s relatives is on the ‘Government’ payroll – and is not just a spokesman - but a political propagandist from the same school as Josef #Goebbels & the regime radio DJ in the hate crimes movie #HotelRwanda. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Rwanda
Moussa Ibrahim Al Gaddafi – like his Iraqi war counterpart #Bagdad Ali - is also a proven liar – last weekend he declared that the vital #Nafusa town of #BirGhanam was safely back under Gaddafi regime control – a bald face lie issued at the same time #CNN and #Aljazeera were broadcasting live from this town surrounded by #FreedomFighters and with the FREE Libya flag fluttering in the wholly liberated background.
The #FF continue to hold this town successfully - resisting several Gaddafi counter attacks - but not a word of retraction has been made this week by ‘Government’ spokesman Moussa Ibrahim Al Gaddafi.
SECOND POINT – The bombed building was within the Zliten conflict zone:
This ‘village’ – located 3 miles from the centre of Zliten – is in the outskirts of the city and within the centre of the zone of conflict which extends about 8 miles from the centre at some points – and homes, factories and other civilian buildings within this zone have been requisitioned by Gaddafi forces – to escape #NATO’S pervasive reach.
Last week the local Zliten LAW SCHOOL housed the Gaddafi military command centre – until NATO legitimately and within the terms of the UNSC resolution authorizing “all necessary means” military action – bombed this building housing Gaddafi army officers [who under the resolution are compelled to return to Barracks] planning further attacks on local civilians.
As that HQ was bombed and unusable – Gaddafi forces had to set up a new front line Zliten HQ and Command Centre - and they promptly did this weekend - in the farm buildings bombed by NATO on MONDAY – which the elaborate chain of NATO Intelligence - extending to local Zliten civilians and members within senior Gaddafi military ranks - soon picked up.
So the 85 ‘villagers’ – were actually Gaddafi regime military personnel and in fact included #Gaddafi army officers, intelligence police, military police, regime soldiers, other local regime loyalists – and a sizable number of Chad mercenaries.
CNN reported the NATO response as follows:
QUOTE:
“A NATO spokesman confirmed the organization had conducted airstrikes in Zlitan, but said the target was a military complex used by forces loyal to #Muammar Gadhafi.
"NATO aircraft conducted an airstrike against a military staging area south of Zlitan last night," the spokesman said.
"NATO had very clear intelligence demonstrating that former farm buildings were being used as a staging point for pro-Gadhafi forces to conduct attacks against the people of Libya. We do not have evidence of civilian casualties at this stage, although military casualties, including mercenaries, are very likely owing to the nature of the target."
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/08/09/libya.zlitan/index.html
FOUTH POINT: Faking civilian deaths has been a well established Gaddafi regime tactic for many decades as the following article confirms:
QUOTE:
“After American planes bombed Tripoli on April 14, 1986, the Libyan Ministry of Information declared that an adopted daughter of Muammar Gaddafi, Hana, less than a year old, had died in the attack. The news was announced on #Libyan radio, TV and print media.
Up until then, no one had heard of the existence of the child - Aisha, who was born in 1977, was thought to be Gaddafis’ only daughter. The story of the adopted child killed by the Americans has persisted, although some doubted from the outset that Hana really existed and, if she did, that she died. An American journalist at the time was shown the body of a baby girl - but was she a Gaddafi daughter or a victim being passed off as such for propaganda reasons? Whatever the truth, the Libyan state propaganda machine kept milking the story, and on the 20th anniversary of the attack, organized the “Hana Festival of Freedom and Peace.” Then in February 2011, Welt am Sonntag, the Sunday Edition of Die Welt, obtained a copy of a document related to the case that came to light in Switzerland after fighting broke out in Libya, and the Swiss government ordered Gaddafi assets in Switzerland frozen. The document lists 23 members of the Gaddafi clan. Seventh on the list: Hana Gaddafi. An official government spokesperson in Bern told “Welt am Sonntag”: “There are reasons why the name is on the list, which we are not revealing publicly.” Hana Gaddafi’s date of birth is listed as Nov. 11, 1985. At the time of the U.S. bombing, she would have been six months old.
In Libya, it’s an open secret that a Hana Gaddafi studied medicine in Tripoli. The young woman was apparently protected by bodyguards. “When I asked who she was, I was told she was Hana Gaddafi, Gaddafi’s adopted daughter who was supposedly killed in 1986,” says an anonymous Internet commentator who claimed to have studied medicine at the university at the same time. Libyan sources say Hana Gaddafi became a doctor, that she still lives in Libya, and holds an important position in the Libyan Ministry of Health. Diplomatic circles in Tripoli have known about Hana Gaddafi‘s existence for several years. Theories continue to swirl around the story. However, recent developments in Libya indicate that Colonel Gaddafi doesn’t shy away from using the supposed death of family members at the hands of Western aggressors to win sympathy from his people.” ©Worldcrunch - with Die Welt
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/09/hana-gaddafi-libyan-leader-daughter-alive-_n_922043.html
The point being - that false regime claims of innocent civilian deaths – are established state policy - emanating from the very home and family of the Dictator himself.
FIFTH POINT: On the subject of state policy!
Just this week – the Regime ‘Prime Minister’ #BaghdadiMahmudi was busted on TV - in which a recorded mobile phone conversation between him and his brother included the following gems:
QUOTE:
Regime ‘Prime Minister’ Baghdadi Mahmudi: "3 died in #Brega.. get them to #Tripoli... get them to medical center and say NATO killed them in Tripoli" "Their families refused?... give them funerals in their cities of origin then say the footage is from Tripoli then" The phone call is recoded in ARABIC in the following video: youtu.be/t7hM3K_6lqA Tws Per @ChangeInLibya
SIXTH POINT: Don’t underestimate the degree of evil of this regime:
It’s not impossible that Gaddafi forces executed locals suspected of #FF sympathies to provide the bodies of females and children – although none of the regime escorted reporters specifically confirmed seeing any female or children’s bodies in the ‘morgue’ visit.
The local Gaddafi forces – and in particular the regime loyalist force the Khamis Brigade - are well known for their ruthlessness and brutality – just today a video taken from the phone of a fallen Gaddafi soldier - shows the bodies of 16 Egyptians working in a factory in #Misrata - executed simply because their country started the Arab Spring and they had dared to continue working in an area controlled by the local #FF.
The video was shown on @LibyaAlHurraTV and can be seen at http://www.youtube.com
SEVENTH POINT: This strike hurt!
As indicated by @ChangeInLibya – the reality is that this particular strike – the second in 2 weeks on the local Gaddafi HQ – has hurt the Regime and hurt them bad - as the true casualties of the ’85 civilian’ bombings included some very senior military officers - and in fact have decimated senior Gaddafi ranks in#Zliten – so its understandable that the regime are upset – and this falsification of the facts in a PR hit against NATO - is simply designed to deflect the despairing reality of this serious regime setback
.
CNN reported the regime claim of the 85 ‘civilian deaths’ today as follows:
QUOTE:
“A Libyan government spokesman said Tuesday that a NATO airstrike has killed 85 civilians near Zlitan, the northwestern Libyan city which has been the target of an intense aerial bombing campaign
Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said the incident happened late Monday night in Majar, a community about 3 miles (5 kilometers) south of Zlitan.
"Dozens of innocent and safe children, woman and old people were martyred in the heinous massacre committed by the colonial crusader NATO alliance as a result of its airstrikes on their homes in #Majar (in Zlitan) while they were asleep," the state news agency JANA reported.
Journalists on a government trip to Zlitan saw at least 25 bodies in the morgue and were told they were killed in airstrikes on five homes, according to CNN's Ivan Watson, who is on the trip. The journalists also saw the ruins of what were described as the homes hit by the strike.”
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/08/09/libya.zlitan/index.html
FIRST POINT – Just because the Gaddafi regime claim ‘civilian deaths’ does not mean it is true:
The #Libya ‘Government’ spokesman - #MoussaIbrahim – or to use his full name [which he never does] - Moussa Ibrahim Al Gaddafi – who like many of Dictator #Gaddafi’s relatives is on the ‘Government’ payroll – and is not just a spokesman - but a political propagandist from the same school as Josef #Goebbels & the regime radio DJ in the hate crimes movie #HotelRwanda. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Rwanda
Moussa Ibrahim Al Gaddafi – like his Iraqi war counterpart #Bagdad Ali - is also a proven liar – last weekend he declared that the vital #Nafusa town of #BirGhanam was safely back under Gaddafi regime control – a bald face lie issued at the same time #CNN and #Aljazeera were broadcasting live from this town surrounded by #FreedomFighters and with the FREE Libya flag fluttering in the wholly liberated background.
The #FF continue to hold this town successfully - resisting several Gaddafi counter attacks - but not a word of retraction has been made this week by ‘Government’ spokesman Moussa Ibrahim Al Gaddafi.
SECOND POINT – The bombed building was within the Zliten conflict zone:
This ‘village’ – located 3 miles from the centre of Zliten – is in the outskirts of the city and within the centre of the zone of conflict which extends about 8 miles from the centre at some points – and homes, factories and other civilian buildings within this zone have been requisitioned by Gaddafi forces – to escape #NATO’S pervasive reach.
Last week the local Zliten LAW SCHOOL housed the Gaddafi military command centre – until NATO legitimately and within the terms of the UNSC resolution authorizing “all necessary means” military action – bombed this building housing Gaddafi army officers [who under the resolution are compelled to return to Barracks] planning further attacks on local civilians.
As that HQ was bombed and unusable – Gaddafi forces had to set up a new front line Zliten HQ and Command Centre - and they promptly did this weekend - in the farm buildings bombed by NATO on MONDAY – which the elaborate chain of NATO Intelligence - extending to local Zliten civilians and members within senior Gaddafi military ranks - soon picked up.
So the 85 ‘villagers’ – were actually Gaddafi regime military personnel and in fact included #Gaddafi army officers, intelligence police, military police, regime soldiers, other local regime loyalists – and a sizable number of Chad mercenaries.
CNN reported the NATO response as follows:
QUOTE:
“A NATO spokesman confirmed the organization had conducted airstrikes in Zlitan, but said the target was a military complex used by forces loyal to #Muammar Gadhafi.
"NATO aircraft conducted an airstrike against a military staging area south of Zlitan last night," the spokesman said.
"NATO had very clear intelligence demonstrating that former farm buildings were being used as a staging point for pro-Gadhafi forces to conduct attacks against the people of Libya. We do not have evidence of civilian casualties at this stage, although military casualties, including mercenaries, are very likely owing to the nature of the target."
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/08/09/libya.zlitan/index.html
FOUTH POINT: Faking civilian deaths has been a well established Gaddafi regime tactic for many decades as the following article confirms:
QUOTE:
“After American planes bombed Tripoli on April 14, 1986, the Libyan Ministry of Information declared that an adopted daughter of Muammar Gaddafi, Hana, less than a year old, had died in the attack. The news was announced on #Libyan radio, TV and print media.
Up until then, no one had heard of the existence of the child - Aisha, who was born in 1977, was thought to be Gaddafis’ only daughter. The story of the adopted child killed by the Americans has persisted, although some doubted from the outset that Hana really existed and, if she did, that she died. An American journalist at the time was shown the body of a baby girl - but was she a Gaddafi daughter or a victim being passed off as such for propaganda reasons? Whatever the truth, the Libyan state propaganda machine kept milking the story, and on the 20th anniversary of the attack, organized the “Hana Festival of Freedom and Peace.” Then in February 2011, Welt am Sonntag, the Sunday Edition of Die Welt, obtained a copy of a document related to the case that came to light in Switzerland after fighting broke out in Libya, and the Swiss government ordered Gaddafi assets in Switzerland frozen. The document lists 23 members of the Gaddafi clan. Seventh on the list: Hana Gaddafi. An official government spokesperson in Bern told “Welt am Sonntag”: “There are reasons why the name is on the list, which we are not revealing publicly.” Hana Gaddafi’s date of birth is listed as Nov. 11, 1985. At the time of the U.S. bombing, she would have been six months old.
In Libya, it’s an open secret that a Hana Gaddafi studied medicine in Tripoli. The young woman was apparently protected by bodyguards. “When I asked who she was, I was told she was Hana Gaddafi, Gaddafi’s adopted daughter who was supposedly killed in 1986,” says an anonymous Internet commentator who claimed to have studied medicine at the university at the same time. Libyan sources say Hana Gaddafi became a doctor, that she still lives in Libya, and holds an important position in the Libyan Ministry of Health. Diplomatic circles in Tripoli have known about Hana Gaddafi‘s existence for several years. Theories continue to swirl around the story. However, recent developments in Libya indicate that Colonel Gaddafi doesn’t shy away from using the supposed death of family members at the hands of Western aggressors to win sympathy from his people.” ©Worldcrunch - with Die Welt
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/09/hana-gaddafi-libyan-leader-daughter-alive-_n_922043.html
The point being - that false regime claims of innocent civilian deaths – are established state policy - emanating from the very home and family of the Dictator himself.
FIFTH POINT: On the subject of state policy!
Just this week – the Regime ‘Prime Minister’ #BaghdadiMahmudi was busted on TV - in which a recorded mobile phone conversation between him and his brother included the following gems:
QUOTE:
Regime ‘Prime Minister’ Baghdadi Mahmudi: "3 died in #Brega.. get them to #Tripoli... get them to medical center and say NATO killed them in Tripoli" "Their families refused?... give them funerals in their cities of origin then say the footage is from Tripoli then" The phone call is recoded in ARABIC in the following video: youtu.be/t7hM3K_6lqA Tws Per @ChangeInLibya
SIXTH POINT: Don’t underestimate the degree of evil of this regime:
It’s not impossible that Gaddafi forces executed locals suspected of #FF sympathies to provide the bodies of females and children – although none of the regime escorted reporters specifically confirmed seeing any female or children’s bodies in the ‘morgue’ visit.
The local Gaddafi forces – and in particular the regime loyalist force the Khamis Brigade - are well known for their ruthlessness and brutality – just today a video taken from the phone of a fallen Gaddafi soldier - shows the bodies of 16 Egyptians working in a factory in #Misrata - executed simply because their country started the Arab Spring and they had dared to continue working in an area controlled by the local #FF.
The video was shown on @LibyaAlHurraTV and can be seen at http://www.youtube.com
SEVENTH POINT: This strike hurt!
As indicated by @ChangeInLibya – the reality is that this particular strike – the second in 2 weeks on the local Gaddafi HQ – has hurt the Regime and hurt them bad - as the true casualties of the ’85 civilian’ bombings included some very senior military officers - and in fact have decimated senior Gaddafi ranks in#Zliten – so its understandable that the regime are upset – and this falsification of the facts in a PR hit against NATO - is simply designed to deflect the despairing reality of this serious regime setback
NATO: Libya airstrike killed troops, not civilians
BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) — NATO and Libyan officials both refuted damaging claims Wednesday in the 6-month old civil war, with NATO insisting its airstrike killed soldiers and mercenaries, not 85 civilians, and the state-run TV apparently showing Moammar Gadhafi's youngest son alive to counter rebel allegations of his death.
NATO spokesman Col. Roland Lavoie said the Libyan claim of civilian casualties in an airstrike near the western front-line town of Zlitan "was not corroborated by available factual information at the site."
NATO aircraft hit a staging base and military accommodation 10 kilometers (6 miles) south of Zlitan, Lavoie said from the operational command in Naples, Italy. Four buildings and nine vehicles within the compound were struck with precision-guided munitions, he said.
"With our surveillance capabilities, we monitored this military compound very carefully before striking it," Lavoie said. "A number of military or mercenary casualties were expected due to the nature of the activity we monitored."
"Our assessment, based on the level of destruction of the buildings, confirms the likelihood of military and mercenary casualties," he said.
Meanwhile, Libyan state television broadcast images of a man it said was 27-year-old Khamis Gadhafi, who commands one of the best trained and equipped units in the Libyan military.
Rebels had claimed Friday that Khamis Gadhafi was killed in another airstrike in Zlitan. The regime dismissed the allegation and said the rebels were only trying to deflect attention from the killing last week of the opposition's military commander, possibly by other rebels.
The images on television showed the son at a Tripoli hospital visiting people wounded in a NATO airstrike and said it was on Tuesday. If genuine, it would be the first time he has been seen in public since the reports of his death.
State television also showed funerals for dozens of civilians it said were killed in the NATO airstrike near Zlitan, about 90 miles (140 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli.
The channel has been airing images in black and white to honor a three-day mourning period for the 85 people the government said lost their lives in Zlitan.
A day earlier, state television ran images of Libyans rummaging through the rubble of buildings the government said were destroyed by the airstrike. They were shown digging out body parts and piling dead babies in sacks in the back of ambulances. It said 33 children and 32 women were among those killed.
Also Wednesday, rebel fighters moved closer to Libyan coastal towns held by Moammar Gadhafi, scoring another significant gain in an offensive launched over the weekend, a spokesman said.
By sundown, the rebels had reached positions 12 miles (20 kilometers) south of the coastal town of Zawiya and 3 miles (5 kilometers) south of the town of Surman, said Abdulsalam Sloga, a rebel spokesman in Libya's Nafusa mountain range, southwest of the capital of Tripoli. Fighters also moved forward on the road to Aziziya, a town south of Tripoli, he said.
Reaching the coast near Tripoli would mark a significant breakthrough in the civil war, which has been deadlocked for long periods. Rebels control eastern Libya, as well as the Nafusa mountains and the port city of Misrata in the west. Gadhafi has been hanging onto the rest of the territory.
Earlier Wednesday, five rebels were killed when regime forces attacked the rebel-held town of Bir Ghanam, Sloga said. Rebels pushed back Gadhafi's fighters and from Bir Ghanam advanced toward the coastal towns.
At their closest point, the Nafusa mountain range is only about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Tripoli, Gadhafi's biggest stronghold.
In other developments, the European Union said it was adding two more Libyan businesses to its list of companies and individuals targeted by sanctions. A statement said the two firms would be named Thursday in the EU's official journal.
So far, the 27-nation bloc has frozen the funds of six port authorities, 49 state-run companies and 39 individuals "involved in the serious human rights abuses in Libya," including Moammar Gadhafi and several of his family members.
Lekic reported from Brussels. Associated Press writers Karin Laub in Zintan, Libya; Adam Schreck in Dubai and Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed to this report.
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