US Slams Russian Accusations of Killing Gaddafi

Thursday, 15 December 2011

US Slams Russian Accusations of Killing Gaddafi

Mystery over the killing of deposed Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi looms with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Thursday accusing the U.S. special forces of being involved.

Exclusive: Gordaffi at Gaddafi’s Capture and the "next mission"

"Who did this?" Putin said in his annual televised phone-in with Russians. "Drones, including American ones. They attacked his column. Then using the radio -- through the Special Forces, who should not have been there -- they brought in the so-called opposition and fighters, and killed him without court or investigation."

Putin also lashed out at U.S. Senator John McCain, a former presidential candidate and frequent Putin critic who warned in a message on Twitter this month that an "Arab Spring" may soon be coming to Russia.

"Some people want to move Russia aside somewhere in a corner, so it does not intervene -- so that it does not intervene in the ruling of the world," said Putin. "They still fear our nuclear capabilities," he said in reference to the West. "That is why we are such an irritant. We have our own opinion and are conducting our own independent foreign policy ... And it clearly bothers someone."

Washington reacted to Putin’s comments saying that it was "ludicrous" to accuse it of a role in Gaddafi’s killing.

"The killing of Gaddafi has been very well documented publicly – the circumstances surrounding it and whom in fact was responsible for it," US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's spokesman, Captain John Kirby, told AFP.

"The circumstances speak for themselves on how Colonel Kadhafi met his fate," Kirby said in Baghdad where he was accompanying the Pentagon chief for a flag-lowering ceremony marking the end of the war in Iraq. "We did not have American boots on the ground in the Libya operation. All our support was done through the air and on the seas."