Three civilians killed and more injured in air assault on Sarir, says Libyan deputy foreign minister Share8
Harriet Sherwood in Tripoli
The Guardian, Thursday 7 April 2011
Article history
Photograph from a Nato aircraft bombing Libya in March. Libyan officials say three security guards were killed in today's bombing of the Sarir oifield. Photograph: Reuters
British warplanes hit a major Libyan oilfield on Wednesday, killing three civilian guards and injuring an unknown number of other workers, according to the Libyan government.
"British warplanes have attacked, have carried out an air strike against the Sarir oilfield which killed three oilfield guards, and other employees at the field were also injured," Khaled Kalim, the regime's deputy foreign minister, told reporters in Tripoli. A pipeline connecting the oilfield to the Mediterranean port of Hariga was also damaged, he added.
"There is no doubt that this aggression ... is against international law and is not covered by the UN resolution," he said.
The Sarir oilfield, in the Sirte region, is a major source of Libya's oil, containing around 80% of the country's reserves.
The three dead men were private security guards, said Kaim, not military personnel. Libyan troops are not stationed at the oilfield, he said.
He offered no evidence for claiming that the warplanes were British rather than from other members of the Nato-led coalition, saying he would provide confirmation after consulting Libyan military officials. "Other employees were also injured [in the bombing]. This is apart from the material damage to the oilfield," he said.
There was no immediate comment from the Ministry of Defence or from Nato.
The opposition government in the east of the country this week sold its first 1m-barrel consignment of oil to a Swiss trading company, boosting its funds by around £77m.
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