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Oops: NATO Regrets Bombing Libya's Rebels, Again |
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Thursday, 28 April 2011 |
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NATO said its warplanes attacked combat vehicles near the besieged Libyan port city of Misrata yesterday, following reports that one of its strikes killed rebel fighters battling Muammar Qaddafi’s forces in the area.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization can’t confirm the strike yesterday 10 miles (16 kilometers) southeast of the port hit rebels, an alliance official said. Twelve rebels were killed in a strike carried out as part of the alliance’s air campaign, the Associated Press reported, citing a doctor in the city.
NATO “deeply regrets” any loss of life, said the official by telephone from Brussels who declined to be identified in accordance with alliance policy. A deadly strike on rebel forces would be the third of its kind since the campaign began.
The attack occurred during intensified fighting around the port city, Libya’s third-largest, as Qaddafi forces continue to lay siege to the only city in country’s west held by rebels. NATO is stepping up a six-week-old air campaign over Libya and selecting targets closer to Qaddafi in a bid to break a military stalemate between the opposition and loyalist forces.
Libyan rebels are struggling to sustain an insurrection aimed at toppling Qaddafi’s 42-year rule after more than two months of fighting. Gene Cretz, the U.S. ambassador to Libya now based in Washington, said yesterday that officials had seen estimates of as many as 30,000 people killed in the conflict.
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