How is killing them protecting them?
"NATO bombs Tripoli, sending Khadafy into rage" by Adam Schreck and Hadeel Al-Shalchi, Associated Press / June 18, 2011
TRIPOLI, Libya — Provoked by renewed daylight NATO bombing of his capital, Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy raged against the alliance yesterday, screaming his message and daring Western forces to keep it up.
Khadafy spoke in a telephone call that was piped through loudspeakers to a few thousand people demonstrating in Tripoli’s Green Square at the end of a day when NATO intensified bombing runs across the capital....
“NATO will be defeated,’’ he yelled in a hoarse, agitated voice. “They will pull out in defeat.’’
The sound of automatic weapons being fired defiantly into the air echoed through the square for hours as carloads of pro-Khadafy supporters, many with children in tow, crammed the streets leading to the plaza.
Although there was a large presence of police and soldiers in the square, many of those who were shooting wore civilian clothes.
Protesters and foreign journalists in the capital said it was one of the biggest such demonstrations since airstrikes began.
“Everyone in Libya wants Colonel Khadafy, not some traitors,’’ Rajab Hamman, a 51-year-old engineer from Tripoli, said in the square as another demonstrator shot a magazine load from an automatic rifle into the air a few steps away. “These are the real, true Libyans,’’ he said of the crowd.
I believe him! Web says living standards, oil revenue, water; getting out of IMF and other things are why invaded.
East of Tripoli, Khadafy’s forces exchanged intense shelling with rebels who are slowly breaking the government siege on their western stronghold, the port city of Misurata....
Gee, is that a flip from what I have been told earlier.
Barrages of artillery and Grad missiles were landing on rebel lines as they continued trying to advance out of Misurata, 125 miles east of the capital. The heaviest shelling rained down between the towns of Dafniya and Zlitan, west of the Mediterranean port. Rebels were holding their own with return fire from their front about 20 miles west of the port.
For weeks rebels had been bottled up in Misurata, one of a handful of toeholds they hold in western Libya. The eastern third of the country is under rebel control, from their de facto capital, Benghazi.
I was led to believe it was half, but.... (sigh)
As NATO warplanes began stepping up attacks on Libyan government forces, bases, and ammunition depots in recent days, the rebels in Misurata used the distraction to start their push out of the city toward Tripoli.
Calling bombing and missile strikes a distraction really makes one ill.
Fighting has been intense along that front, with the rebels able to advance only about 20 miles.
NATO attacked the Libyan capital at midday yesterday, pounding a target in the south of the city and sending a thick cloud of black smoke rising high into the air.
A series of explosions rumbled across other parts of the city as fighter jets could be heard flying overhead. Fire engines raced through the streets, sirens blaring.
It was not clear what was hit or whether there were casualties.
But it is clear the paper is not very concerned.
Yesterday is the main day of rest in Libya, with many people off work.
NATO has been ramping up the pressure on Khadafy’s regime. Though most airstrikes happen under cover of darkness, daytime raids have grown more frequent.
It means they are losing.
Yesterday’s raids followed a barrage that struck multiple targets late Thursday night.
Can't win ground from the....
As the new airstrikes blasted the capital yesterday, NATO Wing Commander Mike Bracken said Khadafy’s future at the helm of Libya was what he called a “political decision.’’
Meaning Khadafy could stay?
Losing.
--more--"
First a case of "friendly" fire:
"NATO mistakenly hits Libyan rebels; Alliance says Khadafy using human shields" June 19, 2011|By Adam Schreck and Don Melvin, Associated Press
TRIPOLI, Libya — NATO said yesterday that it mistakenly struck a column of Libyan rebel vehicles in an airstrike near an eastern oil town two days earlier and expressed regret for any casualties that might have resulted.
The alliance has accidentally hit rebel forces before in its air campaign to protect civilians in the civil war between Moammar Khadafy’s military and the fighters trying to end his more than four decades in power.
The rebels have also complained that NATO’s strikes have not helped them gain decisive momentum against the Libyan leader’s better trained and equipped military, which still has firm control over most of western Libya. The rebels control much of the east....
It's a third, but it seems like so much more.
And what to make of this war, huh?
The reporting is we are winning, we are winning, well, stalemate maybe losing!
International military forces have had some trouble in hitting government troops because of their proximity to civilians.
The resolution said..... arrrrrrrggggghhhhh!!!
NATO accused Libyan leader Khadafy yesterday of using mosques and children’s parks as shields for his military operations, saying the longtime ruler who lashed out against alliance airstrikes is the one “brutally attacking the Libyan people.’’
I'm so sick of war propaganda.
Hours later, at least two explosions shook Tripoli as NATO jets soared above the capital. It was not immediately clear what had been hit or whether there were casualties in the late afternoon raid.
In a telephone call piped through loudspeakers to a few thousand people demonstrating in Tripoli’s Green Square on Friday, Khadafy railed against NATO after a day of intensified bombing runs in the capital....
“NATO will be defeated,’’ Khadafy yelled in a hoarse, agitated voice to the crowd. “They will pull out in defeat.’’
In Brussels yesterday, NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu dismissed Khadafy’s speech as “outrageous.’’
“We are saving countless lives every day across the country,’’ she said. “We are conducting operations with utmost care and precision to avoid civilian casualties. Civilian casualties figures mentioned by the Libyan regime are pure propaganda.’’
WOW! That is really just a BALLS OUT THERE statement!
She also accused Khadafy and his regime of “systematically and brutally attacking the Libyan people,’’ saying government forces “have been shelling cities, mining ports, and using mosques and children’s parks as shields.’’
NATO has been stepping up the pressure on Khadafy’s regime. Though most airstrikes happen at night, daytime raids have grown more frequent.
Lungescu also countered allegations from Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, who accused NATO on Friday of a “new level of aggression’’ and said the military alliance has intentionally targeted civilian buildings in recent days, including a hotel and a university.
See: NATO Leaflets Libya
“This is a crime against humanity,’’ he told reporters in the capital.
Yeah, it is.
--more--"
"Libya airstrike hits civilian target; NATO admits missile razed Tripoli home" June 20, 2011|By David D. Kirkpatrick, New York Times
TRIPOLI, Libya — NATO acknowledged yesterday that an errant missile had destroyed a civilian home in the Libyan capital in the early morning, saying it may have killed civilians.
Then they are IN VIOLATION of U.N. RESOLUTIONS!
It was the alliance’s first such admission in the three-month-long campaign of air strikes against the military forces of Moammar Khadafy.
Reporters taken to the site and a nearby hospital saw at least five corpses, including those of a baby and a child. Libyan officials said at least four more civilians were killed.
The episode was NATO’s second admission of a mistaken strike in two days. On Saturday, it acknowledged inadvertently hitting a rebel convoy of tanks and military vehicles moving around the front near the eastern oil port of Brega. That strike was NATO’s third to accidentally hit rebels.
NATO officials have been talking openly of strains in the Libyan operation....
Because this thing is -- once again -- going HORRIBLY WRONG!
In a statement, NATO said that a bomb intended for a “military missile site’’ had missed and instead “may have caused a number of civilian casualties.’’
“NATO regrets the loss of innocent civilian lives,’’ Lieutenant General Charles Bouchard, the commander of the Libyan mission, said in the statement, blaming the error on a possible “weapons system failure.’’
So much for precision.
You know, the war-makers always claim that. That is something I do remember from history class.
NATO said it has conducted 11,500 sorties “with tremendous care to minimize civilian casualties.’’
Well, you failed. One is too many here because I'm sick of the damn wars.
The Khadafy government has often claimed that the strikes have killed hundreds of civilians. But until yesterday’s bombing, the Khadafy government’s attempts to show journalists proof of civilian casualties have been contradicted by witnesses or lacking in evidence or specific details.
Those standards seem good enough for newspapers when it comes to "terrorists," so.... (sigh).
In a statement in response to the attack, the Libyan foreign minister, Abdulati al-Obeidi, called “for all Muslims to initiate a global jihad against the oppressive criminal West.’’ The secular Libyan governor offered no explanation for its uncharacteristic use of Islamist language....
Maybe it was mistranslated (it has happened before).
And the civilians bombed were OPPONENTS of Khadafy?
The home sat in a working-class neighborhood called Arada, in the Souq al-Juma area, which is known as a hotbed of opposition to the Khadafy government.
Things JUST KEEP GETTING WORSE!
As the journalists visited early yesterday, and during another call later, a few neighbors tried without evidence to argue that the Khadafy government had set off the blast or planted the dead bodies.
An inside job?
But others who said that they loathed Khadafy confirmed an air strike.
There you go.
There were no indications of any military facility in the area.
War crime!
Children’s shoes, diapers, a woman’s dress, and kitchen tools lay amid the wreckage early yesterday.
(Blog editor livid!!)
The cinder-block house had collapsed into the street, leaving a cement stairway dangling in the air from the remnant of the frame.
It wasn't completely pulverized like the WTC tow.... oh, right, different topic.
Several carports on the block had collapsed from the blast, crushing the vehicles within. A neighbor a block away invited reporters into his home to show shattered glass from windows and doors, and said his wife had been taken to the hospital with wounds from the shards.
Both NATO and the Khadafy government have recently stepped up their efforts to accuse each other of recklessly endangering civilians. In a news conference on Saturday in Brussels, NATO officials showed a film clip that appeared to show Khadafy forces firing missiles from inside a mosque into a residential area during fighting in a town in the Nafusa mountains, in Libya’s far west.
Like I am going to believe some western intelligence forgery!
The Israelis did the same thing to the Palestinians and were caught in a lie, so forgive me for not believing the AmeriKan media slop.
Khadafy government officials showed foreign journalists a partially collapsed building of classrooms housing the geography department at a university here, saying that NATO had begun striking campuses in its attempt to terrorize the population. There were no reported casualties.
That's a garbage lie!
See photos at your own risk.
The campus is near a military facility, but whether the damage was caused by a NATO air strike could not be confirmed.
They are just so shameless.
--more--"
Let's add some MORE CIVILIANS to the charges:
"Libya asserts NATO strike killed 15, including children; Alliance reports operation hit a ‘military target’" by Adam Schreck, Associated Press / June 21, 2011
SURMAN, Libya — Libya’s government said a NATO airstrike west of Tripoli early yesterday destroyed a large family compound belonging to a close associate of Moammar Khadafy, killing at least 15 people, including three children.
NATO said the strike targeted a military command and control center.
I no longer believe NATO.
Khadafy’s regime has repeatedly accused the alliance of targeting civilians, an attempt to rally support against international intervention into Libya’s civil war. The alliance insists it tries to avoid killing civilians....
NATO released a statement saying it conducted a “precision strike’’ near the town “on a legitimate military target — a command and control node which was directly involved in coordinating systematic attacks’’ on Libyan citizens.
The commander of NATO’s Libya operation, Lieutenant General Charles Bouchard, said the “strike will greatly degrade the Khadafy regime’s forces’ ability to carry out their barbaric assaults on the Libyan people.’’
NATO officials have repeatedly said the alliance does not target individuals. It could not confirm reports of casualties in the strike but said it regrets any loss of civilian life...
NATO is sickening.
There were no signs of heavy weapons at the site, armed guards in military-style uniforms patrolled the grounds as numerous security cameras watched over the sprawling complex. Hundreds of cases of bottled water, cooking oil, pasta, and other supplies were stockpiled in one of the destroyed buildings.
Another building outside the compound, next to a communications tower, was also flattened, and walls were blown out of an adjacent house. A mosque across the street and a school next door were not damaged.
Journalists were later taken to a hospital in the nearby city of Sabratha, where medical workers showed them the bodies of about eight to 10 people, including at least two children, said to have been killed in the strike.
NATO, which has a mandate to protect Libyan civilians, has rejected government allegations that it targets civilians.
Then they have failed.
However, mistakes have occurred....
Not according to NATO.
--more--"
And it goes from bad to worse!
"NATO helicopter downed in Libya" June 22, 2011|By Michael Birnbaum, Washington Post
BERLIN — NATO acknowledged yesterday that it had lost contact with one of its surveillance drone helicopters, as Libyan state television broadcast pictures of what it said was an alliance attack helicopter that had been shot down....
It is the latest setback for the mission over the past several days....
--more--"
Let's END THIS THING NOW!
Related: Italy breaks ranks over NATO's Libya mission
