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Tuesday 15 May 2012 - 08:31

NATO does damage control over civilian deaths in Libya

Story Code : 162100
The remains of a residential building damaged in a NATO airstrike on Tripoli
The remains of a residential building damaged in a NATO airstrike on Tripoli
"We strongly regret any loss of life during the campaign that we may have been responsible for," NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said in statement issued in Brussels on Monday.

But she added that the airstrikes were carried out "with unprecedented care and precision," saying that “NATO did everything possible to minimize risks to civilians.”

She went on to say that “in a complex military campaign, that risk can never be zero.”

Lungescu also said that NATO is unable to confirm any of the figures cited by Human Rights Watch.

NATO warplanes carried out 26,500 sorties, including 9,700 strike missions, over Libya from March 2011 to October 2011.

According to Libyan National Transitional Council Chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil, about 25,000 people were killed and 50,000 others injured from February 2011 to October 2011.

Earlier in the day, Human Rights Watch said NATO's bombing campaign in Libya killed 72 civilians in eight attacks that the group investigated and the military bloc was obligated to accept responsibility.

In a 76-page report, the human rights group called on NATO to provide "prompt and suitable compensation" to families for the civilian deaths, injuries, and damage of property.

Human Rights Watch investigators at the sites of eight NATO airstrikes discovered that 20 women and 24 children were among the 72 civilian victims.

"To date, NATO has failed to acknowledge these casualties or to examine how and why they occurred," the New York-based group said in the report.

The Libyan Health Ministry says that over 850 civilians were killed in NATO airstrikes against the regime of former dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

In March, Amnesty International said that it had investigated the cases of 55 civilians, including 16 children and 14 women, who were killed in the NATO airstrikes on Libya.
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