Libya yesterday accused Nato of killing at least seven people in an air raid on a medical clinic in Zliten east of Tripoli, as the top US officer spoke of “stalemate” in Nato’s campaign.
“We are, generally, in a stalemate,” US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Michael Mullen told a press briefing in Washington billed as his last before retirement.
Admiral Mullen said Nato has dramatically reduced his forces and “additional pressure has been brought,” even if Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi has not been ousted.
“In the long run, I think it’s a strategy that will work... (toward) removal of Gaddafi from power,” Admiral Mullen said.
Libya’s insurgents yesterday accused Gaddafi forces of shelling the rebel-held city of Misurata, targeting gas and oil facilities and setting them on fire.
The reported Nato air strike on the small clinic in Zliten occurred between 8 a.m.and 8.30 a.m., a local official told an AFP correspondent on a guided media tour of the western town.
The foreign journalists saw a completely destroyed building with a crescent sign at its entrance and the ground littered with surgical gloves, oxygen bottles, pharmaceuticals and stretchers, but no victims.
In other parts of Zliten the reporters were shown three damaged food storage buildings and another still on fire, which the government minders also blamed on Nato.
Strewn around the site were hundreds of smouldering bags of rice, tomatoes and vegetable oil, as firefighters tried to extinguish the flames. Residents said the strike occurred at around 3 a.m.
In the same compound, journalists saw a completely destroyed building bearing the name “Agricultural Security.”
The minders spoke of other air strikes that caused “civilian casualties” early yesterday, but did not elaborate.
East of Zliten, the reporters toured a deserted neighbourhood and saw damage to a school and a mosque. Heavy artillery and explosions could be heard in the distance, and a local official said this came from a Nato warship.
A rebel statement, meanwhile, appealed for help to put out fires in the coastal enclave of Misurata, Libya’s third city, caused by loyalist shelling.
“The loyalist forces shelled strategic regions inside Misurata, hitting gas and oil warehouses,” the statement said, adding that speedy assistance was needed to extinguish the fires “threatening civilians.”
Zliten lies about 150 kilometres east of Tripoli, Colonel Gaddafi’s stronghold, and 60 kilometres from rebel-held Misurata.