Conflicting reports of civilian casualties in Libya

 

China.org.cn, March 24, 2011

Libyan media said Wednesday that "a large number" of civilians had been killed by Western air strikes on the east of the capital, but so far there has been no independent confirmation of these reports.

Libyan officials took journalists to a hospital in Tripoli early on Thursday to see the charred bodies of 18 military personnel and civilians killed by air and missile strikes, the Reuters reported.

The U.K.'s Channel 4 News also reported that six villagers were shot and injured outside Benghazi on March 21 by a U.S. helicopter crew who mistakenly believed they'd landed in hostile territory.

The US chief of staff for the mission in Libya, Rear Admiral Gerard Hueber, said that there have been no reports of civilian casualties caused by the allied military operation in Libya, BBC reported.

"Our mission here is to protect the civilian populace and we choose our targets and plan our actions with that as a top priority," said Hueber.

He also argued that the allied forces were watching over innocent Libyans and protecting them from attack.

"We have the Libyan ground forces under constant observation and we attack them whenever they threaten civilians or attack population centers," said Hueber.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates also retorted that Qaddafi's claims about the number of civilian casualties were sheer lies when his Russian counterpart Anatoly Serdyukov expressed his concern that the coalition's air strikes were "destroying civilian facilities" and killing civilians.