By James Chapman
Last updated at 12:01 AM on 2nd May 2011
Obmar Jelban with the Queen last March during a visit to Buckingham Palace. He has now been expelled from the country
Colonel Gaddafi’s supporters torched the British embassy in Libya yesterday in revenge for the apparent killing of his son and three grandchildren in a Nato missile attack.
Foreign Secretary William Hague responded last night by expelling the Libyan ambassador to London.
Italy condemned a similar ‘vile’ attack on its diplomatic HQ, while the UN announced it was pulling its officials out of Tripoli because of mob rule.
Ambassador Omar Jelban has been given 24 hours to leave the UK as punishment for the destruction of the British embassy – which has been empty for some weeks.
Amid signs of growing strain in the international community over the conflict, David Cameron defended Nato’s choice of targets after three missiles slammed into a heavily-guarded Gaddafi family compound in Tripoli late on Saturday, leaving the building in ruins.
He insisted that anyone who was directing operations against civilians could be targeted under international law.
Libyan officials claimed the attack killed the youngest of the despot’s six sons, 29-year-old Ferrari-driving playboy Saif al-Arab, and three of his grandchildren.
Gaddafi and his wife, who were reputedly inside the devastated building, were said to have escaped unharmed, having left a gathering of family and friends earlier in the evening. ‘The leader himself is in good health,’ said Moussa Ibrahim, the dictator’s spokesman. ‘What we have now is the law of the jungle. This was a direct operation to assassinate the leader of this country.
‘This is not permitted by international law. It is not permitted by any moral code or principle.’
Supporters of the dictator torched the British embassy in Tripoli in revenge for the apparent killing of his son and three grandchildren in the Nato attack
Italy's diplomatic HQ was also attacked and the UN has said it is pulling its officials out because of mob rule
Though there are doubts about the Libyan account – the deaths remain unverified – if it is true, then Nato came tantalisingly close to killing Gaddafi and bringing the war to an end.
The Prime Minister insisted yesterday that individuals were not being targeted, and that UN Security Council resolutions permitted attacks on any building being used to ‘command and control’ attacks on civilians.
‘The targeting policy of Nato and the alliance is absolutely clear,’ he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.
‘It is in line with UN Resolution 1973 and it is about preventing a loss of civilian life by targeting Gaddafi’s war-making machine.
‘That is obviously tanks and guns and rocket launchers, but also command and control as well.’
But this claim was rejected by Russia, which expressed ‘serious doubts’ that the West was not targeting Gaddafi and his family.
David Cameron has defended the choice of targets and insisted that anyone targeting civilians would be subject to attacks under international law
The Prime Minister said the apparent attack on Gaddafi's son's home was in line with UN Resolution 1973
Konstantin Kosachev, head of the international affairs committee in the lower house of Russia’s parliament, said: ‘More and more facts indicate that the purpose of the anti-Libyan coalition is to physically destroy Gaddafi.’
The assassination of a head of state is illegal under international law, but the targeted killing of those woven into the enemy chain of command is legally ambiguous – especially under the ‘all means necessary’ clause in UN Resolution 1973, by which Nato acts.
Saturday’s airstrike is likely to have come as a consequence of Nato’s increasingly aggressive tactics, designed to shake up a stalemate in the conflict.
Over the past few weeks, Britain, France and Italy have placed more ‘military advisers’ on the ground, while the U.S. has patrolled with armed drones. Labour’s defence spokesman Jim Murphy said: ‘Ministers must be clear that there has been no decision to target individuals, which would be beyond the terms of Resolution 1973.
‘This is an incredibly complex situation
Over the past few weeks, Britain, France and Italy have placed more ¿military advisers¿ on the ground
Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt said there was no verification that Gaddafi’s son had been killed, and added: ‘There are military targets, but individuals are not specifically targeted. That’s always been the case and that remains the case.’
The West needs to do more to stop the ‘disgraceful’ killing of protesters in Syria, Mr Cameron said yesterday.
The Prime Minister added that the international community needed to ‘step up the pressure’ on President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Security forces have killed more than 500 people since the protests in Syria began, many of them in the besieged southern city of Deraa, near the border with Jordan.
Did anyone actually die in airstrike?
The apparent killing of Colonel Gaddafi’s son and three of his grandchildren is a huge propaganda coup for the dictator’s regime.
It lends support to his claim that the Nato forces are hugely over-stepping their legal mandate – and will even wipe out innocent children in their attempts to remove Libya’s leader.
But there was growing scepticism in the country last night as to whether anyone had actually died in the airstrike.
Cover-up? One of the bodies hidden under a Libyan flag in a Tripoli hospital yesterday
External shots show the scale of the damage at Saif al-Arab's compound in a wealthy part of Tripoli
With no public display of the bodies with faces visible – something that is normal in Arab cultures – many believe it is simply a cynical stunt designed to elicit sympathy.
As state television showed four bodies draped in flags – without showing their faces – Abdul Raman Busi
Saif al-Arab: There is speculation over whether or not he is dead or if his 'death' has been staged to allow him to leave the country
‘We believe he was in one of his underground bunkers. Until we see proper video evidence of the bodies, we are not going to believe anything.
‘He has been lying to us for decades – why should we believe anything he says now? It’s sick propaganda.’
Journalists taken to the walled complex of one-storey buildings saw heavy bomb damage. The roof had caved in, leaving mangled rods of steel hanging down among splintered chunks of concrete. The blast had torn down interior ceilings, while household items – such as smashed toilet bowls, sinks and furniture – littered the floor.
With Gaddafi’s whereabouts a mystery last night, his officials also claimed that his location on Saturday night at the family gathering must have been leaked by spies to Nato – just 24 hours after another Nato missile struck a nearby building as the Libyan tyrant was speaking on state television.
The news of the apparent death of Gaddafi’s son initially prompted jubilant scenes in rebel-held areas, with guns and small arms being fired into the air in Benghazi, their eastern stronghold, throughout Saturday night.
But celebrations soon gave way to scepticism after it became apparent that local and international opinion was turning against the Nato action.
Another senior official from the National Transitional Council, the political wing of the rebel forces, said:
The bombs penetrated at least two storeys of the building and even got to the basement
Journalists were taken to the compound to see the heavy bomb damage. They saw caved in rooves, mangled rods and household items smashed and littering the area
‘He’d spent a lot of his life in Germany. We have even heard rumours that he’s still there – or that this “killing” is to enable him to escape as a refugee and flee justice.
‘They just showed some flag-draped bodies on TV, but you couldn’t see the faces. I’m still not convinced it’s them.’
He added: ‘But nobody should be sorry whether it’s true or untrue. Gaddafi has killed 10,000 innocent people – I’m not going to cry for three or four
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1382599/Libya-Gaddafi-attack-British-Embassy-Libyan-ambassador-ordered-leave.html#ixzz1L9GiiQMH
No comments:
Post a Comment