New NATO Mission in Libya: Bombing Civilians

Local Editor

NATO airplanes which were required by the UN to protect Libyan civilians were raiding houses and killing people in Sirte, the hometown of Muammar Gaddafi. Terrified Sirte residents whose homes were destroyed and relatives killed in the battle considered NATO missiles as the most dangerous in the war, rather than Gaddafi forces’ assaults. "Why is NATO bombing us?" asked Faraj Mussa, whose blue minivan was carrying his family of eight jammed in beside mattresses and suitcases as they fled the city this week. "We were afraid to come out because they (Gaddafi loyalists) told us that the NTC (National Transitional Council) would cut our throats. But we couldn't stay because of the bombing -- we had to take the risk," he said. Salem Hamees, another resident leaving with his extended family, said: "Our house was hit by a bomb. It destroyed three rooms. We were lucky because we were in the other rooms. "We don't know where it came from. The NATO bombing is scary. It's all scary. There is no difference between their bombs," he said. NTC fighters, backed by the planes of the western alliance have been since three weeks ago staging an assault against one of the last two bastions of Gaddafi. DEADLY STRIKES International aid workers also said that NATO bombing was sometimes doing the opposite of what it has been supposed to do in the city that was home to around 100,000 people before the Libyan revolution kicked off in February. When asked if NATO was fulfilling its mission to protect civilians, one aid worker, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak publicly, replied: "It wouldn't seem so." "There's a lot of indiscriminate fire," he said, adding that many of the Sirte residents and doctors he had spoken to had complained of the deadly results of NATO airstrikes. “DIRE SITUATION” Meanwhile, the situation has been deteriorating in the city, with residents have fled the three-week-long fighting, and many others were feared to be trapped inside the city where worries were escalating over lack of food, drinking water and medical facilities. A team from The International Red Cross (IRC) has recently managed to enter Sirte to provide medical aid to the citizens facing a humanitarian crisis. “We witness that the medical situation is dire and there is a clear need of medical items,” said Hichem Khadhraouy, the head of the IRC group. Injured residents usually receive treatment in make-shift hospitals set up in the western side of the city. Those that sustained severe wounds are taken to the main hospital in the city of Misratah, about 150 kilometers east of Sirte.