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'Over 150 killed' in Sirte strikes
Source: Agencies |
September 23, 2011, Friday
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OUSTED Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's spokesman said yesterday that NATO air strikes and the shelling of Sirte by interim government forces in the past two days have killed 151 people.
He also said the city's main hospital had run out of medical supplies and power.
Sirte, Gadhafi's hometown, is largely cut off, besieged on three fronts by ruling National Transitional Council forces.
The spokesman said: "(In two days), 151 civilians were killed inside their homes as rockets and other explosives fell on their heads. The city hospital stopped functioning altogether. Patients died simply because nothing can be done to help them."
He made similar claims last week when he said that NATO raids on Sirte had hit a residential building and a hotel, killing 354 people.
A NATO spokesman at the time said such claims were often unfounded.
Sirte is one of only two major towns still under the control of pro-Gadhafi forces after the NTC took over most of another stronghold, Sabha, on Wednesday.
Gadhafi's spokesman called on the United Nations, the European Union, the Arab League, foreign media and rights groups to try to get into Sirte.
He said: "We hold them directly responsible for exposing crimes committed against a whole city with the vigor and energy they had when they believed they were helping the cities of Misrata and Zawiyah against the Libyan armed forces," he said, referring to a devastating Gadhafi bombardment of those cities during the war.
NATO claims its air strikes in Libya since March have not killed large numbers of civilians.
Gadhafi's spokesman also attacked the raising of Libya's new flag at the UN.
"Look at Palestine - more than 60 years' legitimate struggle for a state and still nobody wants to hear the case of the Palestinian people to have a seat at the UN," he said. "Yet some armed gangs, supported by NATO, get their flag raised at the UN before they are in control of the whole country. The Libyan people did not vote for that flag. It is all through violence and rockets and bombs."
He also said the city's main hospital had run out of medical supplies and power.
Sirte, Gadhafi's hometown, is largely cut off, besieged on three fronts by ruling National Transitional Council forces.
The spokesman said: "(In two days), 151 civilians were killed inside their homes as rockets and other explosives fell on their heads. The city hospital stopped functioning altogether. Patients died simply because nothing can be done to help them."
He made similar claims last week when he said that NATO raids on Sirte had hit a residential building and a hotel, killing 354 people.
A NATO spokesman at the time said such claims were often unfounded.
Sirte is one of only two major towns still under the control of pro-Gadhafi forces after the NTC took over most of another stronghold, Sabha, on Wednesday.
Gadhafi's spokesman called on the United Nations, the European Union, the Arab League, foreign media and rights groups to try to get into Sirte.
He said: "We hold them directly responsible for exposing crimes committed against a whole city with the vigor and energy they had when they believed they were helping the cities of Misrata and Zawiyah against the Libyan armed forces," he said, referring to a devastating Gadhafi bombardment of those cities during the war.
NATO claims its air strikes in Libya since March have not killed large numbers of civilians.
Gadhafi's spokesman also attacked the raising of Libya's new flag at the UN.
"Look at Palestine - more than 60 years' legitimate struggle for a state and still nobody wants to hear the case of the Palestinian people to have a seat at the UN," he said. "Yet some armed gangs, supported by NATO, get their flag raised at the UN before they are in control of the whole country. The Libyan people did not vote for that flag. It is all through violence and rockets and bombs."
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