Denmark to probe 2011 strikes on Libya that killed 14 civilians

Denmark to probe 2011 strikes on Libya that killed 14 civilians
Above, a Danish air force aircraft in 2011. Up to 10 countries, including Denmark, took part in NATO’s Operation Unified Protector, which lasted six months in 2011. (AFP)
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Updated 25 January 2024
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Denmark to probe 2011 strikes on Libya that killed 14 civilians

Denmark to probe 2011 strikes on Libya that killed 14 civilians
  • Country was aware of potential civilian casualties in 2012 but kept matter private, documents show
  • ‘I want them … to declare their mistake to us,’ says Libyan whose wife, children were killed in airstrike

LONDON: The Danish Defense Ministry is launching an investigation into NATO-led airstrikes on Libya in 2011 in which Denmark’s air force killed 14 civilians, The Guardian reported on Thursday.

It is the first time that any of the 10 countries involved in the NATO campaign to remove former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi from power has admitted potential involvement in the killing of civilians.

The 10 countries, including six from Europe, took part in NATO’s Operation Unified Protector, which lasted six months in 2011.

The campaign led to the collapse of the Qaddafi regime but resulted in more than a decade of instability in Libya, which remains divided to this day.

Danish aerial bombardment led to the killing of civilians in two incidents. The first, an airstrike on Surman, west of Tripoli, killed 12 civilians — including five children and six members of one family — in June 2011.

In September that year, a Danish strike on an apartment block in Sirte killed two civilians — a man and a pregnant woman.

The site was targeted over unconfirmed reports that snipers had set up on the rooftop, The Guardian reported.

Documents show that Denmark had privately understood from as early as 2012 that its military may have been involved in civilian casualties highlighted in a UN commission and by Human Rights Watch.

But its decision to avoid acknowledging the matter publicly prevented relatives of the slain civilians from seeking legal redress.

Khaled Al-Hamedi, whose wife and children were killed in the June 2011 strike on Surman, tried to bring a legal claim against NATO but was rebuffed by the Belgian court of appeal, which ruled in 2017 that the alliance had immunity from prosecution.

Al-Hamedi’s father, a senior figure in the Qaddafi regime, owned the Surman compound that was targeted in the strike.

But the Libyan national disputed a NATO claim that the building served as a “command and control node,” describing it as residential.

Al-Hamedi said he would consider bringing a claim against Denmark after discovering that officials from the country were aware of the possibility of civilian casualties more than a decade ago. “I want them first to declare their mistake to us … to say sorry as well,” he added.

The Danish Defense Ministry said in a statement: “The minister of defence has requested the Defence Command to assess whether the documents in question indicate that there were ramifications of such magnitude that an investigation should have been conducted at that time within the coalition or NATO framework.”

One newly released document from 2012, detailing Denmark’s response to the UN commission’s findings on the Surman and Sirte strikes, said: “Civilian casualties … cannot be ruled out.”

Marc Garlasco, an adviser to the UN-established international commission of inquiry on Libya, said: “It is greatly disappointing that there wasn’t enough transparency that they put this out at a time back when it could be useful.

“Useful not only for lessons learned, so that lives could be saved in the future, but also useful for the victims of these strikes — that they could have an understanding of why their family members were killed and could potentially receive some kind of compensation for their loss.”

Responding to Denmark’s opening of an investigation, a NATO official said the campaign in Libya involved “unprecedented precision” and “exceptional care … to minimize risks to civilians.”

NATO’s internal investigations into strikes on Libya were complicated by its lack of ground forces in the country, which could have been used to inspect damage to targeted sites.

“There was no invitation from the Libyan authorities for NATO to send personnel into the country to review strikes,” the official added.

Tessa Gregory, a partner at British public law firm Leigh Day, said: “In military operations where it is alleged that civilian casualties have occurred, it is imperative that those allegations are properly investigated and that victims are given enough information to seek redress under international and domestic legal mechanisms. Without transparency, it is likely a culture of impunity will flourish.”


Israeli troops fire at 3 UNIFL positions in southern Lebanon, UN source says

Israeli troops fire at 3 UNIFL positions in southern Lebanon, UN source says
Updated 7 sec ago
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Israeli troops fire at 3 UNIFL positions in southern Lebanon, UN source says

Israeli troops fire at 3 UNIFL positions in southern Lebanon, UN source says
  • The source said one of the locations that was fired at was UNIFL’s main base at Naqoura
BEIRUT: Israeli troops opened fire at three positions held by UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon on Thursday, a UN source told Reuters, without immediately being able to specify the type of fire.
The source said one of the locations that was fired at was UNIFL’s main base at Naqoura.

Palestinian officials say an Israeli strike on a Gaza shelter has killed at least 28 people

Palestinian officials say an Israeli strike on a Gaza shelter has killed at least 28 people
Updated 10 min 6 sec ago
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Palestinian officials say an Israeli strike on a Gaza shelter has killed at least 28 people

Palestinian officials say an Israeli strike on a Gaza shelter has killed at least 28 people
  • Palestinian medical officials say an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza has killed at least 21 people,

DEIR AL-BALAH: An Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza killed at least 28 people and injured 58 on Thursday, with the toll likely to rise, Palestinian medical officials said.

The Isreali military claim they targeted militants in a former school sheltering displaced people.
"Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence," the military said.

Israel has continued to strike at what it says are militant targets across the Palestinian enclave even as attention has shifted to its war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and rising tensions with Iran. It launched a large-scale air and ground operation against Hamas in northern Gaza earlier this week.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where the bodies were brought, confirmed the toll from the strike in the central town of Deir Al-Balah. It said several other people were wounded in the strike.
An Associated Press reporter saw ambulances streaming into the hospital and counted the bodies, many of which arrived in pieces.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Witnesses said the strike targeted a makeshift post of the Hamas-run police inside the shelter.
Israel has repeatedly attacked schools-turned-shelters in Gaza, accusing militants of hiding out there.
Hamas has continued to launch attacks on Israeli forces and fire occasional rockets into Israel more than a year after its Oct. 7 attack ignited the war.
Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel and rampaged through army bases and farming communities in that attack, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 others. They are still holding around 100 captives, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s offensive has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not say how many were fighters but say women and children make up more than half of the fatalities. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced around 90 percent of its population of 2.3 million people, often multiple times.


Egypt denies involvement in Sudan war

Egypt denies involvement in Sudan war
Updated 10 October 2024
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Egypt denies involvement in Sudan war

Egypt denies involvement in Sudan war
  • Egypt’s foreign ministry rejected Dagalo’s claim that Egypt’s air force carried out strikes targeting his forces near Jebel Moya

Cairo: Egypt has denied allegations from Sudanese paramilitary chief Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, at war with the army since April last year, that its military has been involved in the conflict.
The war between Dagalo’s Rapid Support Forces and the regular military, led by army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, has killed tens of thousands and caused the world’s largest displacement crisis.
In a video posted online Wednesday, Dagalo accused Egypt’s air force of carrying out strikes targeting his forces near Jebel Moya, a key area south of Khartoum.
“Egypt is fighting us,” he said, accusing it of being one of six countries of interfering in the conflict, including Iran.
Iran’s supply of MoHajjer-6 drones, verified by two weapons experts to AFP, appeared to give the army support for an advance on the Sudanese capital earlier this year.
In a statement issued late Wednesday, Egypt’s foreign ministry rejected Dagalo’s claim.
Egypt “denies the allegations... regarding the participation of the Egyptian air force in the battles taking place in brotherly Sudan,” the statement said.
Army chief Burhan has historically been close to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.
Analysts say war-torn Sudan war has become a playground for proxies, warning in particular about the impact of the United Arab Emirates’ support for the RSF.
In December, UN experts monitoring an arms embargo on Sudan’s Darfur region described as “credible” allegations Abu Dhabi had funnelled weapons to Dagalo’s forces on cargo planes.
According to diplomats, the United States recently pressed the UAE behind closed doors over its support for the RSF, though US President Joe Biden designated Abu Dhabi as a “major defense partner.”
Both the army and the RSF have been accused of repeated atrocities in the war, including targeting civilians, the indiscriminate shelling of residential areas and looting or blocking aid.
The RSF has been accused of crimes against humanity, systematic sexual violence and ethnic cleansing.


US warns Israel not to repeat Gaza destruction in Lebanon

US warns Israel not to repeat Gaza destruction in Lebanon
Updated 10 October 2024
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US warns Israel not to repeat Gaza destruction in Lebanon

US warns Israel not to repeat Gaza destruction in Lebanon
  • Biden and Netanyahu’s call had been expected to focus on Israel’s response to last week’s missile barrage by Iran

Jerusalem: The United States urged its ally Israel to avoid Gaza-like military action in Lebanon, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it could face “destruction” like the Palestinian territory.
Israel’s military chief, Herzi Halevi, vowed to keep bombing Hezbollah targets, a campaign that has killed more than 1,200 people since September 23, “without allowing them any respite or recovery.”
The comments came after a phone call between Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden, their first in seven weeks. The White House said Biden told Netanyahu to “minimize harm” to civilians in Lebanon, particularly in “densely populated areas of Beirut.”
“There should be no kind of military action in Lebanon that looks anything like Gaza and leaves a result anything like Gaza,” said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
Netanyahu said in a video address to the people of Lebanon on Tuesday: “You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza.”
He added: “Free your country from Hezbollah so that this war can end.”
Biden and Netanyahu’s call had been expected to focus on Israel’s response to last week’s missile barrage by Iran.
Iran fired about 200 missiles at Israel in what it said was retaliation for the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. Most were intercepted by Israel or its allies.
Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said: “Our attack on Iran will be deadly, precise and surprising. They will not understand what happened and how it happened.”
Biden has cautioned Israel against attempting to target Iran’s nuclear facilities, which would risk major retaliation, and opposes striking oil installations.
A Lebanese government source told AFP that Hezbollah had accepted a ceasefire with Israel on September 27, the day Israel killed Nasrallah.
But they said Israel’s response had torpedoed the plan, backed by Washington and its allies, and the Lebanese government had “had no contact with Hezbollah” since his death.
Hezbollah said its fighters were locked in clashes with Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, using rocket-propelled weapons to repel attempts to breach the border.
Two people were killed by suspected Hezbollah rocket fire in the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona, while Israel intercepted two projectiles fired toward the coastal town of Caesarea, officials said.
Lebanon’s health ministry said at least four people were killed in an Israeli strike on a village southeast of Beirut, an area so far largely spared from Israeli bombing.
Lebanon’s state civil defense body said an Israeli strike killed five of its personnel in the southern village of Derdghaiya.
Israel has intensified air strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon since September 23, uprooting more than a million people, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Its ground forces crossed into Lebanon on September 30 in response to Hezbollah rocket and artillery attacks over the past year that have forced tens of thousands of Israelis from their homes.
Israel’s military said Wednesday its troops “eliminated terrorists during close-quarter encounters and in aerial strikes” over the previous 24 hours, adding “100 Hezbollah terror targets were destroyed.”
Israeli operations have expanded from border areas in the interior to the southern section of Lebanon’s Mediterranean coast.
According to a toll from the Israeli army on Wednesday, 13 of its soldiers have died since ground operations inside Lebanon began.
Syrian state media reported an Israeli attack Thursday on the central provinces of Homs and Hama.
Off the coast of Yemen, a ship was struck and damaged by an “unknown projectile,” a British maritime agency said, following months of attacks by Hezbollah and Hamas allies, the Houthis.
Israel expanded an ongoing military operation around Jabalia in northern Gaza, where about 400,000 people are trapped, according to Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
Lazzarini said on X there was “no end to hell” in the area and that “recent evacuation orders from the Israeli authorities are forcing people to flee again & again.”
The army surrounded Jabalia and its refugee camp at the weekend and shelled it on Wednesday, preventing the delivery of aid, Gaza’s civil defense agency said.
Washington said it was “incredibly concerned” about the humanitarian situation in north Gaza as Israel tightens its siege.
“We have been making clear to the government of Israel that they have an obligation under international humanitarian law to allow food and water and other needed humanitarian assistance to make it into all parts of Gaza,” said the State Department’s Miller.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 42,010 people in Gaza, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the United Nations has described as reliable.
Israeli police said at least six people were wounded Wednesday, some seriously, in a stabbing rampage in the central Israeli town of Hadera.
In the occupied West Bank, Israeli border police killed at least four Palestinians in the northern city of Nablus, Palestinian health authorities and Israeli security forces said.
In Beirut, many people are sleeping out in the streets after Israeli air strikes.
Ahmad, a 77-year-old who did not want to give his family name for fear of reprisals, said he had a message for Hezbollah.
“If you can’t continue to fight, announce you are withdrawing and that you have lost. There is no shame in losing,” he said.
But Raed Ayyash, a displaced man from the south of the country, said he hoped Hezbollah would keep fighting.
“We hope for victory, and we will never give up.”


Israel says it eliminates Hezbollah ‘Golan Heights’ member, Syrian media report Israeli airstrikes

Israel says it eliminates Hezbollah ‘Golan Heights’ member, Syrian media report Israeli airstrikes
Updated 10 October 2024
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Israel says it eliminates Hezbollah ‘Golan Heights’ member, Syrian media report Israeli airstrikes

Israel says it eliminates Hezbollah ‘Golan Heights’ member, Syrian media report Israeli airstrikes
  • Israel military says it eliminated 2 Hezbollah commanders in southern Lebanon
  • Israeli fighters attack ammunition depots in Beirut area, says military

JERUSALEM/BEIRUT: Israel’s military said it had eliminated a Hezbollah member in Syria who relayed intelligence against Israel in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, while Syrian media reported on Thursday that Israeli airstrikes hit targets in Syria.
Israel, which has carried out strikes against Iran-linked targets in Syria for years, has ramped up its raids since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by the Iran-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israeli territory, which ignited Israel’s war in Gaza.
Israel has escalated its retaliation for the Hamas attack, sending troops into Lebanon and airstrikes into Iran, Yemen and Syria in the hunt for Iran-backed militants, raising fears of a wider Middle East conflict that could draw in Iran and the United States.
Ground clashes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah, which is also backed by Iran, spread along southern Lebanon’s mountainous frontier on Wednesday as the Middle East was on high alert awaiting Israel’s response to an Iranian missile strike last week.
US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Wednesday about potential Israeli retaliation against Iran, in a call both sides described as positive.
The two discussed Israel’s plans in the 30-minute call, and Biden urged Netanyahu to minimize civilian harm in Lebanon, the White House said.
Israel has promised that arch-foe Iran will pay for its missile attack, which caused little damage, while Tehran has said any retaliation would be met with vast destruction, raising concerns of broader fighting in the oil-producing region.
Biden last week made comments discouraging Israel from striking Iranian oil fields and said he would not support Israel striking Iranian nuclear sites.

Strikes in Syria
The Israeli military said on Thursday it had eliminated two Hezbollah commanders in southern Lebanon and its fighter jets attacked ammunition depots in the Beirut area and ammunition depots and other military infrastructures in southern Lebanon on Wednesday.
The Israel Defense Force said on Wednesday it had eliminated Adham Jahout, a member of Hezbollah’s “Golan Terrorist Network” in the area of Quneitra in Syria.
The IDF said Jahout’s role was to relay information from Syrian regime sources to Hezbollah and transmit intelligence gathered on the Syrian front to facilitate operations against Israel in the Golan Heights.
Israel captured the Golan Heights in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed the area, a move not recognized by most countries.
Syrian state TV said early on Thursday that Israel had carried out airstrikes targeting an industrial site in the Syrian city of Homs and a military site in the countryside near the city of Hama, causing “some material damage.”
The strikes targeted a car manufacturing plant in Homs and caused a fire, Syrian TV said, citing the director of the industrial site, Amer Khalil.
Explosions were also heard in the Syrian city of Daraa and were being investigated, state media reported.
The Israeli military said on Wednesday it had intercepted a drone that approached Israel over the Red Sea but did not cross into Israeli territory, minutes after the Islamic Resistance in Iraq said it had targeted Israel’s Eilat with drones.

’Deadly, precise, surprising’ retaliation
The Biden-Netanyahu discussion was “direct and very productive,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters, while acknowledging the two leaders have disagreements. Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon told reporters the two held “a positive call, and we appreciate the support of the US“
Relations between Biden and Netanyahu have been tense over the Israeli leader’s handling of Gaza and Lebanon. The US has tried to prevent hostilities from escalating and has unsuccessfully sought to broker a ceasefire in Gaza.
Some analysts say Israel is most likely to respond to Iran’s Oct. 1 attack by targeting Iranian military installations, especially those that produce ballistic missiles like the ones used in the attack. It could also seek to destroy Iranian air defense systems and missile-launching facilities.
In a video carried by Israeli media on Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant reiterated plans for a lethal strike against Iran. “Our attack will be deadly, precise and above all surprising,” he said.
Although the conflict has intensified, a proposal last month by the US and France for a 21-day truce between Israel and Hezbollah “is still on the table,” the top UN official in Lebanon said on Wednesday.
Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon has killed more than 2,100 people, most of them in the last few weeks, and forced 1.2 million from their homes, according to the Lebanese government. Israel says it has no choice but to strike Hezbollah so that tens of thousands of Israelis can return to homes they fled under Hezbollah rocket fire.
The Hamas attack a year ago killed about 1,200 people while about 250 were taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies. More than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive, the Gaza health ministry says. Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced and much of the enclave has been laid to waste.