Despair, chaos as ‘Nato strike’ kills Libya rebels, paramedic

An alleged Nato air strike on Libyan rebel tanks killed at least three people yesterday, including a paramedic, sending furious insurgents into a chaotic retreat to the town of Ajdabiya.

For the past week the rebels have been waiting in vain for Nato air strikes to dislodge Muammar Gaddafi’s forces from the oil town of Brega, which the opposition has twice seized and lost in their month-old struggle.

Three fighters and a paramedic who witnessed the attack said there was no fighting at the time and that the aircraft circled the area before striking a group of tanks, destroying them and sending shrapnel into a nearby ambulance.

Rebel soldiers had prevented reporters from travelling to the front from Ajdabiya all morning, without giving any reason. Fighters later said that at least 25 tanks had been brought up to the front the night before.

At midday a convoy of ambulances and rebel military vehicles came racing back through the checkpoint bound for Ajdabiya’s hospital, where around a dozen wounded men were carried in as onlookers shouted “God is greatest!”

“There was no fighting anywhere nearby. They flew back and forth and then they bombed our forces,” said Saleh Faraj, 34, a defected soldier who rode in on one of the pick-up trucks carrying the wounded.

“After they struck there were dead people everywhere. There were pieces of dead people... My friends,” said a tearful Amir Mohammed, 20.

“Nato is with Muammar,” he muttered bitterly.

Inside the hospital rebel fighters in military fatigues fell to their knees and sobbed while others angrily accused Nato of aiding Gaddafi’s forces despite its UN mandate to protect civilians.

“As soon as they launched the air strike, Gaddafi’s forces fired Grad rockets at us. They were working together,” said Attiya Mohammed, 23 who said he was operating a nearby rebel rocket launcher at the time of the attack.

Nato a week ago took over from a US, French and British coalition which had since March 19 been enforcing a UN mandate to protect civilians in Libya. It has said that Gaddafi’s air force is completely grounded.

Yesterday the alliance said it was “looking into the specific details of an alleged strike on a column of tanks outside of Brega today.”

“The fighting between Brega and Ajdabiya, where the strike occurred, has been fierce for several days. The situation is unclear and fluid with mechanised weapons travelling in all directions,” it said.

High winds had kicked up a sandstorm earlier in the day, which could have obscured visibility.