Libya blasts ‘massacre’ in Nato strikes

AFP/Tripoli

A young girl hoists the new Libyan flag yesterday as diplomats named by Libya’s rebel administration, the National Transitional Council, take over the London embassy previously staffed by appointees of Muammar Gaddafi’s government.

Libyan authorities yesterday accused Nato of a “massacre” of 85 villagers in air strikes in support of rebels, whose political leadership was in crisis after the sacking of its top officials. Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi said world powers would be held responsible for the “ugly massacre committed by Nato” on the village of Majer, 10km south of Zliten, the official Jana news agency reported. Majer was attacked late on Monday to try to help rebel fighters enter the government-held city from the south, government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said. “After the first three bombs dropped at around 11pm on Monday, many residents of the area ran to the bombed houses to try to save their loved ones. Three more bombs struck,” he told reporters on an organised visit. Thirty-three children, 32 women and 20 men from 12 families were killed in the “massacre,” Moussa said. Reporters attended the funerals of victims and saw 28 bodies buried at the local cemetery where hundreds of people gathered and vented their anger against Nato “the spies and the traitors,” an AFP correspondent said. Journalists also saw four destroyed buildings, as local officials said more casualties were still buried under the rubble. A single bulldozer at the scene, however, stood idle. In the hospital morgue, 30 bodies—including two children and one woman—were shown along with other bodies which had been torn apart. Nato, which launched its air campaign at the end of March under UN resolutions to protect civilians against Gaddafi’s forces, insisted the raids near the western town were “legitimate” and that it had no evidence of the civilian deaths. “We do not have evidence of civilian casualties at this stage,” the Nato spokesman for the alliance’s Libya campaign, Colonel Roland Lavoie, said from his Naples, Italy headquarters. Nato raids south of Zliten were against two former farms used for military purposes by Gaddafi forces, he said. “This was a military facility clearly ... Nato takes extreme precaution not to harm innocent civilians living or working nearby.” Jana said Gaddafi sent a message to the heads of state of UN Security Council members saying “they should bear responsibility for the ugly massacre carried out by Nato in Majer.” He was quoted as saying “there has never been such a massacre throughout the history of wars.” Rebels fighting around Zliten, 120km east of Tripoli, said on Monday they were running low on ammunition as they struggled to hold off an assault by loyalists. Abdul Wahab Melitan, a rebel spokesman in the nearby port city of Misrata, said Gaddafi loyalists had launched an assault on their positions around Zliten on Sunday. The rebels, advancing from Misrata, a week ago punched into the centre of Zliten, sparking fierce clashes. But they later pulled back to the edge of the city of 200,000 inhabitants. On another front, at least two rebels were killed in fighting yesterday around the oil town of Brega in eastern Libya, a rebel spokesman said. And explosions rocked the Fernej district of southwest Tripoli between 1am and 2am, sending flames shooting into the night sky, an AFP correspondent in the capital said. They were followed by a series of smaller blasts, suggesting an arms depot had been hit. Two other explosions followed at around 6am, he said. Meanwhile, in the rebel capital of Benghazi in eastern Libya, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, chairman of the National Transitional Council (NTC), sacked the entire executive office of his government late on Monday. NTC officials said he dismissed several top ministers—including those responsible for finance, defence and information—while calling for root and branch reform. “Mr Mustafa Abdel Jalil has disbanded the executive office,” spokesman Shamsiddin Abdulmolah said, adding that prime minister Mahmoud Jibril would be tasked with creating a reformed body. It was the latest dramatic phase in the turmoil sparked by the assassination of rebel military commander General Abdel Fattah Younes in late July. The NTC has come under fire for its role in events leading up to Younes’s death, as well as its handling of the aftermath. Canada, which has recognised the NTC, ordered Gaddafi’s diplomats to leave the country within five days and cut off access to the embassy’s bank accounts, Foreign Minister John Baird said. And France said the European Union had slapped further sanctions on the Gaddafi regime, with Al Sharara, which operates in the oil sector, among the targets.