NATO has acknowledged that its air strikes yesterday “may have” resulted in the deaths of rebel forces on the ground in Libya yesterday – but will not apologise, Sky News reports.
Rear Admiral Russell Harding, spokesman for NATO, said after the attack which killed at least five people – some report that the death toll was 10 – that the military alliance did not know the rebels were using tanks. The incident came after the rebels had criticised the alliance for failing to provide the assistance it required.
NATO said it was trying to confirm the reports and that the situation along the coastal highway where most of the fighting is taking place “is unclear and fluid, with mechanised weapons travelling in all directions.”
However, rebel commander General Abdul Fatah Younis said at a news conference in Benghazi that NATO had been told that the rebels were moving T55 and T72 heavy tanks from Benghazi to Brega.
He said that fighters and medics were among the dead after the bombing “carried out in error”. The rebels said they had followed NATO advice to avoid friendly fire and painted the tops of their vehicles with yellow markings.
Saleh Faraj, a former soldier fighting with the rebels, told the news network that at least three rebel tanks were hit in the air strike. “There was no fighting anywhere. (The warplanes) flew back and forth and then they struck our forces,” he said.
NATO had earlier also denied pro-government officials’ accusations of involvement in the attack on the Sarir oil field and there has been no comment from the Ministry of Defence. On the other hand, an oil official in rebel-held east Libya said the attack was most likely the work of pro-Al Qathafi forces. The alliance also warned that it would strike any forces threatening civilians.
The airstrike, that government officials say was conducted by a British fighter jet, is said to have damaged the pipeline linking Al Sarir oil field with the rebel-held port of Tobruk.
allowing government troops to advance.
Meanwhile, after a rebel armoured unit was again hit by “friendly fire”, the second such “error” by the alliance fighters, around midday near the key oil town of Brega, 80km west of Ajdabiyah, groups of Libyan rebels and civilians have fled from the eastern town of Ajdabiyah.
Soon after the attack, families were reported to have packed into cars and lorries and joined rebel military vehicles in a convoy heading northeast towards the opposition capital of Benghazi, around 160km away. Many rebel fighters remained in the town along with doctors at the hospital, after its patients were evacuated to Benghazi as a precaution,
At the same time, Libyan state television claimed that pro-Al Qathafi forces had entered Ajdabiyah, but residents said they have not seen any signs of them.
Some observers have been reorted as speculating that both what the NATO spokesman said and what he did not say suggests that the deaths yesterday are now being used to remind the rebels that the alliance’s aircraft are not its private air force.
A week after coalition forces, through air strikes and cruise missiles, beat Al Qathafi’s forces back from the gates of Benghazi, on March 26, opposition forces managed to seize Ajdabiyah, but after edging to within 60km of Sirte two days later, and despite the coalition air strikes, the rebels have since been steadily pushed back almost 400 km by the superior firepower of the pro-government forces.
Observers say that the conflict that kicked off on February 15, is heading towards a stalemate, with Al Qathafi firmly in control in Tripoli and with the rebels unable to turn the tide even under the cover of NATO-led air power.
After rebels said they needed to buy more high-powered weaponry from abroad and would welcome foreign trainers to help them teach fighters how to use them, General Abdel Fattah Younis, the rebel military commander, said publicly for the first time that Qatar had provided the rebels with anti-tank weapons, “nothing sophisticated”, the rebels said, but it helps.
The pro-government forces have advanced on Misurata’s eastern side today, triggering street battles with opposition fighters and forcing residents to flee.
“They tried to advance and enter the city from the eastern side, from an area called Eqseer which is a populated area. The rebels confronted them and clashes are continuing,” Reuters has reported insurgent spokesman Hassan al-Misrati saying
It has been announced, that a team of three UN investigators will start probing alleged human rights violations in Libya. The team will gather testimony from both east and west Libya and will work closely with the International Criminal Court.
