Libya's Civilian Toll From Strikes, Denied by NATO - New York Times reports

[Mira]

When NATO bombs hit an apartment building in Surt, Libya, on Sept. 16, Mahmoud Zarog Massoud's wife was killed.

TRIPOLI, Libya — NATO’s seven-month air campaign in Libya, hailed by the alliance and many Libyans for blunting a lethal crackdown by Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi and helping to push him from power, came with an unrecognized toll: scores of civilian casualties the alliance has long refused to acknowledge or investigate.
By NATO’s telling during the war, and in statements since sorties ended on Oct. 31, the alliance-led operation was nearly flawless — a model air war that used high technology, meticulous planning and restraint to protect civilians from Colonel Qaddafi’s troops, which was the alliance’s mandate.
“We have carried out this operation very carefully, without confirmed civilian casualties,” the secretary general of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said in November.
But an on-the-ground examination by The New York Times of airstrike sites across Libya — including interviews with survivors, doctors and witnesses, and the collection of munitions remnants, medical reports, death certificates and photographs — found credible accounts of dozens of civilians killed by NATO in many distinct attacks. The victims, including at least 29 women or children, often had been asleep in homes when the ordnance hit.
In all, at least 40 civilians, and perhaps more than 70, were killed by NATO at these sites, available evidence suggests. While that total is not high compared with other conflicts in which Western powers have relied heavily on air power, and less than the exaggerated accounts circulated by the Qaddafi government, it is also not a complete accounting. Survivors and doctors working for the anti-Qaddafi interim authorities point to dozens more civilians wounded in these and other strikes, and they referred reporters to other sites where civilian casualties were suspected.

source, more photos and more:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/world/africa/scores-of-unintended-casualties-in-nato-war-in-libya.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2

[tabatha]

1. Some comments on a Libyan FB page (repeat post from elsewhere)

Oliver Deák Frankly, given that NATO made more than 27,000 strikes on various targets 2 wrong target identification (Majer and Sirt) plus one bomb malfunction (Tripoli) is the highest succesfull rate of all time in any operation carried out by any airforce anywhere in the world. Wether we like it or not mistakes happen, bad intelligence killed a lot of people in warzones but in this case we have 2 wrong strikes becuase of intelligence failure. 2 from 27 000. As for the debris, Im sorry but there is simply no way to avoid them, NATO had a choice to leave ammunition bunkers alone and thus to be used for futher military actions by pro-G forces and bomb them and risk that secondary explosions and debris may hit someone. But the target was clearly military one, that goes without a question.
14 hours ago

Amatullah Katchina Nato has done very Well for my family in Libya of which there are over one hundred family members..dont speak of something you dont know about First Hand
10 hours ago

Marguerite Dehler Amatullah Katchine I know it very closely -- I have friends that died, friends that lived through it -- and I know many who ran around trying to notify NATO, willing to sacrifice their lives to show them where to hit. I am glad all your family members survived, that is wonderful
9 hours ago

[Mira]

2. Thanks. Good information, posted for balance I assume. Compared to what we did in Iraq

and the ten years in Afghanistan it was a "successful" waging of an "operation", no doubt.
I posted it for the new seemingly official data and because all war torn visuals remind me of my childhood in war torn surroundings.

[tabatha]

3. Iraq was an abomination.

When we first went in, I used to wake up each morning filled with horror at what the Iraqis were going through thanks to us.

I do believe that Libya was handled better, only because of Charles Bouchard who was extra careful. That is why one can never apply the same brush to everything - even to the same organization, NATO. I think NATO operations in Pakistan stink.