Doctors in Tripoli said yesterday that they were ‘overwhelmed’ with casualties as the fighting in Libya continued to rage yesterday, with NATO continuing its bombing.
‘We have patients with gunshot wounds to the neck, the chest, the abdomen, in the upper and lower extremities,’ one English-speaking doctor said.
The Libyan government stronghold of Sirte, 280 miles east of Tripoli, has come under intense attack by NATO missiles.
Very heavy detonations from NATO jets were reported yesterday.
But the NATO-backed counter-revolutionary ‘rebels’ have been driven back whenever the Libyan army has confronted them, with fierce fighting continuing in and around Tripoli and other places.
Earlier, one American Congressman, Democrat Dennis Kucinich, said: ‘NATO has become a force unto itself, unaccountable to international law.
‘It has become the airforce for the rebels.’
He added: ‘The rebels have already been involved in summary executions.
‘We have to ask some hard questions. How on earth in the world did we get into this in the first place and on whose behalf?’
The AP news agency in New York claimed it had received a phone call from Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim, in which he apparently called for a settlement between the government and the NTC ‘rebels’.
According to the AP report, it identified Ibrahim by his voice.
He apparently told them that Colonel Gadaffi’s son, Saadi, was ready to lead talks with the NTC on forming a new transitional government, and that Gadaffi remained in Libya and he had seen the Libyan leader last Friday.
But NATO continued its bombing, ruling out a ceasefire.
South Africa’s Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe has called on the International Criminal Court to investigate civilian killings committed by NATO and the ‘rebels’.
The African National Congress Youth League urged African governments not to recognise the ‘rebels’.
‘Imperialist invasions and re-colonisation of Africa will never be allowed,’ said the Youth League.
• The new military commander of the ‘rebel’ forces in Tripoli is a former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which was named at the UN as an affiliate of Al Qaeda, according to reports at the weekend.
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