At least 40 civilians dead in Tripoli strikes: Vatican official

[cali]

Reuters March 31, 2011, 10:10 pm


ROME (Reuters) - At least 40 civilians have been killed in air strikes by Western forces on Tripoli, the top Vatican official in the Libyan capital told a Catholic news agency on Thursday, quoting witnesses.

"The so-called humanitarian raids have killed dozens of civilian victims in some neighborhoods of Tripoli," said Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli, the Apostolic Vicar of Tripoli.

"I have collected several witness accounts from reliable people. In particular, in the Buslim neighborhood, due to the bombardments, a civilian building collapsed, causing the death of 40 people," he told Fides, the news agency of the Vatican missionary arm.

Libyan officials have taken foreign reporters to the sites of what they say were the aftermath of Western air strikes on Tripoli but evidence of civilian casualties has been inconclusive.

Western powers say they have no confirmed evidence of civilian casualties from air strikes, which they have carried out under a U.N. mandate to protect civilians caught in conflict between Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's forces and rebels.

<snip>

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/9113812/at-least-40-civilians-dead-in-tripoli-strikes-vatican-official/

[Poll_Blind]

1. Smart bombs doing the bidding of dumb people.

PB

[cali]

2. no such thing as a smart bomb.

[Tatiana]

3. Just another example of why we don't need to be involved in Libya.

Those bombs have our name on them... not France's and not Britain's. The civilians are going to say that the Americans killed their neighbors and family.

We should have let the Arab League deal with this.

[zorahopkins]

4. "In Order To Make An Omelette...."

I can just hear it now....

Supporters of KMA ("Kinetic Military Action" or "Kiss My Ass" -- you choose) saying, "Well, it's unfortunate that some innocent civilians were killed, but after all, you must realize that in order to accomplish our ends in Libya, unavoidable accidents occur."

Or that old favorite from Viet Nam days, "In order to save Libya, we might have to destroy parts of it".