NATO said on Saturday its missiles had hit a site in Libya used by Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s forces to stockpile military supplies and vehicles, while Qaddafi’s state media said 15 civilians had been killed.
A top rebel official said rebels would be ready to discuss any political settlement that did not involve Qaddafi remaining in power, although no proposals had emerged yet at talks with Qaddafi allies that were taking place through intermediaries.
The attack late on Friday was the second within hours on what NATO said were clearly identified military targets in the coastal city of Brega, about 200km west of the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.
Libyan state television said a local bakery and a restaurant had been hit, wounding 20 people in addition to the 15 dead. State news agency Jana said a strike in the same area earlier on Friday had killed five civilians.
“We have no indications of any civilian casualties in connection to these strikes,” a NATO official said. “What we know is that the buildings we hit were occupied and used by pro-Qaddafi forces to direct attacks against civilians around Ajdabiya,” the official said.
Ajdabiya is rebel-held.
“Unlike the pro-Qaddafi forces, we go to great lengths to reduce the possibility of any civilian casualties,” the official added.
Libyan television later reported that a number of people were killed in a NATO attack late on Saturday on the town of al-Qawalish, about 145km south of Tripoli. It said cars and houses were damaged, but gave no further details.
Qaddafi’s government said more than 700 civilians have been killed in three months of Western air strikes, but has not presented evidence of such large numbers of civilian deaths.
The alliance acknowledged accidentally killing civilians in a strike on Tripoli a week ago, but otherwise has said it hit only military targets.
A correspondent in the capital Tripoli heard four explosions as jets flew overhead on two occasions on Saturday. The blasts appeared to come from the eastern suburb of Tajura.
Libyan television later said shortly before midnight that the NATO-led alliance also had launched air strikes against government buildings in the Khallat al-Farjan area of Tripoli.
In rebel-held Misrata, 200km east of Tripoli, a rebel spokesman called Abdelsalam said Qaddafi’s forces shelled the city on Saturday, but the situation was quieter since a NATO strike on Wednesday which took out pro-Qaddafi positions. A local doctor said there had been no serious injuries.
NATO’s acknowledgment for the first time that it could have caused civilian casualties a week ago prompted concerns in the alliance.
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said NATO’s credibility was at stake and called for a suspension of the campaign — an appeal that was swiftly knocked down at NATO headquarters and by allies, including France and Britain.
In a televised address this week, Qaddafi branded NATO “murderers” and vowed to fight to the death to stay in power.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not