NATO ducks apology over Libya opposition deaths

08/04/2011| IslamWeb

The deputy commander of NATO's operations in Libya has said he is "not apologizing" for two air strikes which "may have led to the deaths" of a "a number of" opposition fighters outside the town of Brega.

Rear Admiral Russell Harding said in a press briefing on Tuesday that the situation on the ground had been "very fluid" when the strikes were launched a day earlier.

He said tanks had been moving in different directions and that it was difficult to distinguish who was operating them.

"Until this time, we had not seen the TNC [Transitional National Council] operate tanks," he said.

General Abdelfatah Yunis, the opposition commander, said in Benghazi that four people - two fighters and two medics - were killed in the attack, 14 wounded and another six people were missing.

He said it was friendly fire, "carried out in error by NATO," adding that the fighters had informed NATO that they were moving T55 and T72 heavy tanks from Benghazi to Brega.

He said the fighters still have 400 tanks and will get more.

Elsewhere in the country Qaddafi troops have advanced on the besieged town of Misurata, sparking street battles with opposition fighters.

"They tried to advance and enter the city from the eastern side, from an area called Eqseer which is a populated area," Hassan al-Misrati, an opposition fighter, told the Reuters news agency.

"The opposition fighters confronted them and clashes are continuing," he said.

Groups of fighters and civilians have also fled from the eastern town of Ajdabiya on Thursday, following the NATO air strikes.

Libyan state television claimed that forces loyal to longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi had entered Ajdabiya, but residents said they could see no sign of them.

NATO took command of the air operation last week after American, British and French air strikes halted Gaddafi's troops from advancing on Benghazi.

PHOTO CAPTION

Wounded men are treated at Ajdabiya Hospital after the NATO strike which the opposition said killed four fighters.

Al-Jazeera