NATO HAS said it probably killed Libyan rebels by mistake in an air strike near the port of Brega on Thursday, but defended its leadership of the military campaign.
Rebels said five of their fighters were killed in a Nato strike on a column of tanks moving towards Brega from Ajdabiyah further east. The pilots apparently believed the tanks belonged to forces loyal to Muammar Gadafy.
British rear admiral Russell Harding, deputy commander of Nato operations in Libya, said “it would appear” that two Nato strikes may have killed rebels.
He said the situation was “fluid” and the alliance was finding it difficult to distinguish between rebel forces and those of Col Gadafy.
Nato accuses Col Gadafy’s military of hiding equipment in urban areas or behind human shields, and says it was not aware the rebels would be moving tanks towards the front line on Thursday. In Benghazi, a rebel spokesman told news agencies the alliance was told, but opposition soldiers began painting their vehicles in bright pink yesterday to help avoid further “friendly fire”.
A week after taking command of the military operation from the US-French-British triumvirate, Nato finds itself on the defensive, with rebels complaining that air strikes have eased off. The head of US Africa Command, Gen Carter Ham, said the conflict was entering stalemate and it was very unlikely the rebels would be able to fight their way into Tripoli.
Admiral Harding, who pointedly said he was not apologising for the latest “friendly-fire” deaths, rejected rebel charges that Nato was sluggish in its strikes.
“The operational tempo has been steadily increasing” since the alliance took over command, he said. In the past week, Nato had hit targets including T72 tanks, rocket launchers, surface-to-air missiles and ammunition dumps in locations near Misurata, Ran Lanuf and Brega, he said. “Some approaches have destroyed equipment and disrupted military formations, others have lines of communication, cutting the government forces’ access to vital supplies. Others have struck directly at forces attacking civilians.”
With widespread agreement that neither side is strong enough to overrun the other, western leaders have been emphasising the need to find a political solution.
Nato secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen took a similar line to Gen Ham yesterday, saying there was “no military solution only”. With the front line between Brega and Ajdabiyah virtually static, Nato has said its priority is Misrata, where intense battles have been taking place.
Misurata, Libya’s third city, rose up with other towns against Col Gadafy in mid-February and has been under siege for weeks after a crackdown put an end to most protests in the west. Rebels said people in Misurata were crammed five families to a house in safe districts to escape weeks of sniper, mortar and rocket fire.
The UN children’s agency, Unicef, said it had “reliable” reports snipers had hit children. A ship chartered by the UN World Food Programme delivered high-energy biscuits, flour and water purification tablets, and medicine to last 30,000 people for a month.