Six die as Gaddafi forces hit Misrata
The body of slain Libyan rebel Moftah Wanis el-Jazwi is rapped with a pre Gadhafi flag and flanked by fellow rebels at the hospital of Ajdabiya. Photo: Nasser Nasser
Government forces killed six civilians in the city of Misrata today in an unrelenting campaign of shelling and sniper fire aimed at driving rebels from the main city they hold in western Libya, medical officials said.
Doctors said 243 people have been killed and some 1,000 injured in more than a month and a half of fighting between Muammar Gaddafi's forces and rebels in Misrata. Most of those killed today were hit by snipers, they said.
One said government forces appeared to be trying to wound civilians.
"The weapons that the Gaddafi brigades use are not meant to prevent movement in the city, but to cause also deformation or paralysis so the suffering of the people endures all their lives," the doctor said.
Meanwhile, Nato said it was investigating reports that a coalition warplane had struck a rebel position which was firing into the air near the eastern front line of the battle with Colonel Gaddafi's forces.
Rebels said a group of opposition fighters was hit by an air strike about 12 miles (20km) east of Brega last night.
Mohammad Bedrise, a doctor in a nearby hospital, said three burned bodies had been brought in by men who said they had been hit after firing a heavy machine gun in the air in celebration.
Idris Kadiki, a 38-year-old mechanical engineer, said he had seen an ambulance and three cars burning after an air strike.
Nato spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said the coalition was looking into the reports.
The loosely organised rebel force had been acting in a more disciplined fashion in recent days. Yesterday only former military officers and the lightly trained volunteers serving under them were allowed on the front lines. Some were recent arrivals, hoping to rally against forces loyal to the Libyan leader who have pushed rebels back about 100 miles (160km) this week.
The better organised fighters, unlike some of their predecessors, can tell the difference between incoming and outgoing fire. They know how to avoid sticking to the roads, a weakness in the untrained forces that Col Gaddafi's troops have exploited. And they know how to take orders.
The greater organisation was a sign that military forces which split from the regime to join the rebellion were finally taking a greater role in the fight after weeks trying to organise. Fighters cheered yesterday as one of their top commanders - former Interior Minister Abdel-Fattah Younis - drove by in a convoy towards the front.
It was too early to say if the improvements will tip the fight in the rebels' favour. They have been struggling to exploit the opportunity opened by international airstrikes hammering Col Gaddafi's forces since March 19.
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Alfred Falzon
Apr 4th 2011, 08:17
@Reno Calleja Don't you think that the tragic events unfolding in Libya are the end result of a despotic and ruthless administration that bulldozed over the Libyan citizens' basic human rights and made a parody of social justice? You may qualify this assessment as naive, but irrespective of your alienating "tribal" analysis that does not hold water any more, as a PL veteran militant and very much involved in the struggle for a better Malta at a time when shameful religious-inspired witch-hunts were commonplace, can you ever accept the imposition of a corrupt dynasty being handed from father to son/s as the one in Libya today? I add BLOODTHIRSTY for the once-icon Colonel Gaddafi has failed miserably his people and beliefs, blinded as he is by servile yesmen milling around him! No amount of apologetics will cover up the mess, after 42 years of uncontested megalomania!His time is up and he should leave other Libyan leaders of integrity build a new Libya based on the respect of human rights and social justice for all. No other solution will solve Libya's present endemic problems! The Green Book has long been shelved by him and is today a dead letter!
Muhannad Shembesh
Apr 3rd 2011, 13:27
To Mary Attard:
I would like to know who produced the video that you posted? Again here we are another person thinks she knows all about Libya but in fact knows nothing. Have you ever been to Libya???
If you really like to know the truth please watch this video which was aired on BBC:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jwt5K4KGnkk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw3UcJ0L-w4&feature=related
i advise you to to cure yourself from the Islamophobia that is in your head and get out more and see the truth.
Charles J. Buttigieg
Apr 3rd 2011, 09:08
@ Reno Calleja.
Notwithstanding modern technology, air strikes cannot avoid killing civilians and hitting non military structures and this is stating the obvious. To liberate occupied countries, the Allied Air Forces probably killed as many civilians as the Nazis did during the occupation operations. However, aerial strikes are essential to weaken the enemy but the end results would only be achieved by the land forces by way of an invasion.
Diplomatic solutions instead of armed combats are always more desired, however, in the case of Libya, the people would only settle for the removal of the Gaddafi Regime. And that leaves no space for diplomacy considering the background of 41 years of tyrannical and despotic governance.
Libya’s problems are not about lack of harmony between different tribes. The tribal composition of Benghazi is a mix not different than Tripoli or any other place in Libya. The big majority in Libya has had enough and they will not stop their resistance before the Gaddafi dynasty calls it a day. Reno, this is facing a reality.
Michael Spiteri
Apr 3rd 2011, 09:48
Please let me correct you if I may. Gaddafi is and will stay in power because, contrary to what the media spoon feeds us, a large majority of Libyans support him. If he is ousted we will witness a bloody vengeance in that region, just like in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Michael Spiteri
Apr 3rd 2011, 00:03
Civilians...wearing camo battle dress and wielding automatic rifles...yeh right!
J.Debono
Apr 2nd 2011, 21:35
@all
This is a VIDEO statement of a doctor working at the MISRATA refugee camp. The humanitarian situation is very dire, much help is needed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMEK9atz8HQ&feature=youtu.be
reno calleja
Apr 2nd 2011, 20:53
I am not at all surprised that the Nato planes killed a number of people they are supposed to protect. Every week the U.S. drones kill tens of innocent children, women and old people in Pakistan and Afghanstan.
What is really terrifying is that the missiles that are being used to destroy Ghadafi's weaponary are uranium tipped. Witness what happened in Iraq. Hundreds of children are diagnised with cancer every month because the uranikum used in the missiles, fired by the U.S., will continue to affect the immune system of the Iraqi population for generations to come. . The situation in Libya cannot be solved by military means.
A politcal solution is needed. As I predicted in the Xarabank programm the war is going to be long and bloody. This is a tribal war. Mark my words. It fhe Benghazi tribe will win, they will butcher thousands of people from Ghadafi's tribe. The Shiites are still killing and torturing Sunnis every day in Iraq. This is the Arab and African culture. That is why the West cannot impose its own brand of 'democracy'. The U.S. and the U.K. and France never seem to learn from history.
Wayne Hewitt
Apr 2nd 2011, 22:05
Reno, back your comments with facts otherwise it's mere speculation.
It is obvious that in any war, collateral damage is unavoidable. The question is who tries to mitigate this most.
Mary Ann Borg
Apr 2nd 2011, 22:18
As ever you are so right Mr Reno Calleja. Since you are so conversant with the weapons being used by your hated Americans, perhaps you could shed light on the kind of flowers-in-bloom that Gaddafi's tanks are tipped with? You know, the ones that are shelling Misurata on a daily basis? I'm sure your forsesight is so good that you even predicted Lech Valesa's stand that brought the eventual permanent fall of the Soviet Union. After all, I'm sure you agree with Gaddafi that all the Beoble love him, as can be seen in Benghazi.
Andy Farrugia
Apr 2nd 2011, 23:26
Hahaha! Jurassic Park ideologies and politics!
Mary Attard
Apr 3rd 2011, 05:11
You are right. The Kosovo was brought about the same thing. Depleted uranium left swaths of toxic land in the Balkans. There is an interesting video that might provide some clue to what happened in Libya and who the rebels are.The English is halting but the facts would be hard to deny:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UulE9pYl-s0
Mary Attard
Apr 3rd 2011, 05:16
Here are some facts for those who wish to see them:
http://www.leftfutures.org/2011/03/fears-grow-of-depleted-uranium-use-in-libya/
Now consider just how much sand comes across the sea from the desert every time a scirrocco wind blows. Consider also what it will bring.
axuereb
Apr 3rd 2011, 05:27
In an interview on sky news (sat 12th), one of the rebel leaders admited to the killing of civilians by one of their planes ( apparently the no fly zone applies only for Gaddafi's loyalists) and added 'we can take it (referring to the killing of civilians by the oposition) if it means the war will be shortened! The sky reporter didnt even bat an eyelid at this statement.
Corinne Vella
Apr 3rd 2011, 23:14
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/27/opinion/27kristof.html - Unfit for Democracy?
john micallef
Apr 2nd 2011, 19:07
Well done to who participated in the no fly zone!! I see it's being every efective.
Be ashamed, spending & justifying expenses of billions into war gadgets which fail.
Is it possible that those big military professors getting paid only god knows how much have not cross checked with Mr Koussa about this during their interogation?? Or was it a talk between friends?
These things make me happy, as sometimes we call our small eficcient army as scouts, but when you see these things happening by who pretends to be the elite, we start to change our minds.
Charles J. Buttigieg
Apr 2nd 2011, 18:54
Libya’s armed forces are an enactment of a ‘Dad’s Army’ parade on the village’s Church Square. They are an international joke, however,they have the very basic soldierly ingredient which outweighs the opposition’s dilettante combatants. This means that,as is, the civil war would go on for ever. Remember George Grivas leading EOCA’s freedom fighters in Cyprus? That guerilla conflict lasted five years.
The Libyans have been suffering for 41 years and time is now ripe for them to taste freedom, but it’s proving very hard for them to achieve their goals,they need help. Send in the Ghurkhas,SAS and Delta Force- a dozen of each would put Gaddafi out of his misery.
wally vella-zarb
Apr 2nd 2011, 20:38
It never ceases to amaze me how some people can spout such stereotyped generalizations! A "Dad's Army" that has managed to stay in power for forty years? A comparison with EOKA? It is like reading something from "Boys' Own Paper" of the post-war years!
John Portelli
Apr 3rd 2011, 04:11
Sounds like you're the type of guy who watches alot of movies and believes war propaganda.
Mary Attard
Apr 3rd 2011, 04:15
Wake up, the special forces have been on the ground from the start but more are being sent in. The coalition is not even trying to hide the fact any more, hence the improved discipline. This is no insurrection but, rather, an outside aggression. Without foreign help, the conflict would never have started. As for the Libyans, why was Muammar Qaddafi not afraid to arm civilians? A lot of people, especially in the west, are quite loyal to him. Poor people, looks like another Iraq.
Please choose the reason of your report below: