Gaddafi airstrike ‘doesn’t break resolution’
By politics.co.uk staff
A Nato airstrike which killed one of Muammar Gaddafi’s son is consistent with UN security council resolutions, David Cameron has insisted.
Saif-al Arab died alongside three of Colonel Gaddafi’s grandchildren in the airstrike against what the prime minister called a “command and control” target.
But a spokesperson for the Libyan government said international forces had sought to assassinate their leader and that the move was illegal.
“How is this helping in the protection of civilians? Mr Saif al-Arab was a civilian, a student,” Moussa Ibrahim said.
“He was playing and talking to his father and mother and his nieces and nephews and other visitors when he was attacked and killed.”
Nato said it regretted the loss of civilian lives and insisted it planned and conducted its strikes carefully to minimise the risk to innocent people.
Mr Cameron told the BBC: “It is about preventing a loss of civilian life by targeting Gaddafi’s war-making machine, so that is obviously tanks and guns, rocket launchers, but also command and control.”
A Nato spokesperson, Lieutenant-General Charles Bouchard, made clear the alliance was not going to step back from its efforts as a result of the military action.
“I want to remind again all civilians in Libya to distance themselves as much as possible from Gaddafi regime forces, equipment and known military infrastructure to reduce the potential danger to them,” he warned.
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