Libya accuses Nato over bombing of imams

Governments claims video shows attack by Nato killed11 imams and 45 wounded Muslim holy men The Libyan government has shown video of what it claims to be an attack on a guest house in the city of Al-Brega in eastern Libya where dozens of Islamic imams or sheikhs were staying as part of a peace march to the east. The gruesome images showed 11 dead imams and 45 wounded Muslim holy men – five of them in a coma – according to Libyan government officials speaking in the courtyard of a Tripoli mosque where Islamic elders and Christian Coptic priests had gathered to condemn the attack. The carnage was allegedly caused by a Nato strike in the early hours of Friday. Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said: “We will never accept from Nato that this was an accident. This barbaric, inhumane attack took place in the early hours. “The imams had travelled to call for brothers in the east of the country to join them in peace. “They were staying in a small guest house in the city of Brega to rest before moving on to Ajdabiya, and then hopefully Benghazi. “Is this legal under any Security Council resolution, to kill people while they sleep just awhile before they were praying for peace?” Nato was due to respond to the claim this evening at a press conference in Brussels, but did not take the opportunity to make a statement about the bombing. Muammar Gaddafi has meanwhile said in an audio recording, broadcast on state television, that he was in a place where Nato cannot reach and kill him. “I am telling the coward crusaders that I am at a place you cannot reach and kill me,” he said in the recording broadcast on al-Jamahiriya television. Nato bombed Gaddafi’s Bab al-Aziziyah compound in Tripoli on Thursday. Earlier, the Libyan government strongly rejected a claim by Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini that Gaddafi was injured in a recent strike and is no longer in the capital. Muammar Gaddafi Libya Middle East Africa Martin Chulov guardian.co.uk

Posted by on May 13, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.