Italy and NATO were embroiled in a row over accusations that an alliance warship failed to come to the rescue of a boatload of desperate refugees fleeing the fighting in Libya.
A boat with more 200 people aboard arrives in Lampedusa in April. Around 24,000 refugees from Africa have reached Lampedusa since the offensive against the Libyan regime began in March Photo: AFP/GETTY
By Nick Squires, Rome
9:01PM BST 05 Aug 2011
The Italian government demanded that Nato investigate reports that the unnamed warship, which is in the Mediterranean to support military action against the regime of Col. Muammar Gaddafi, did not respond to an SOS after the boat's engine broke down.
The rickety vessel eventually made it to Lampedusa, an Italian island which lies off the coast of North Africa, where the 370 exhausted survivors said they had been at sea for six days and that up to 100 people, including women and children, had died from hunger and thirst.
Their bodies were tossed overboard, the refugees said.
Franco Frattini, Italy's foreign minister, requested a formal investigation into the incident and instructed Italy's ambassador to Nato to ask the alliance to regard the rescue of civilians fleeing Libya as part of their remit.
It was not clear which country the warship belonged to.
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Britain has three warships deployed off the Libyan coast: HMS Ocean, which carries Apache helicopters, HMS Bangor, a mine hunter and HMS Liverpool, which came under attack from rockets fired by pro-Gaddafi forces positioned near the coastal town of Zlitan in western Libya on Wednesday.
But NATO rejected the Italian complaint, denying that Italy had asked the alliance warship to help the migrants.
The alliance said that while its maritime command was informed by Italy of a distress call on Thursday, the Italian authorities subsequently said that they had responded to the incident.
"NATO maritime command was informed on August 4 by Italian maritime authorities of a distress call of a ship," said Carmen Romero, a Nato spokeswoman in Brussels.
"NATO subsequently confirmed with Italian authorities that they had responded to the incident with three ships as well as with helicopter support." Around 24,000 refugees and economic migrants from north and sub-Saharan Africa have reached Lampedusa since the offensive against the Libyan regime began in March.
In the latest of numerous tragedies, the 65ft-long boat was spotted adrift earlier this week by a Cypriot tug boat, whose crew threw life rafts into the water after some of the refugees jumped into the sea, begging to be rescued.
The captain of the Cypriot vessel, reportedly fearing that the refugees could swamp his boat and even capsize it, left the area.
But he contacted search and rescue officials, who relayed an SOS to a Nato warship which was 27 miles away, according to Italian media reports.
The Nato warship refused to come to the refugees' aid, survivors told Italian officials.
The boat was 90 miles south of Lampedusa when it was finally rescued on Thursday in an operation involving Italian coastguard vessels and a helicopter.
"If this is true, what are we still doing in Nato?" said Angela Maraventano, an MP with the Northern League, the junior partner in Silvio Berlusconi's conservative coalition, which stridently opposed Italy's participation in the Nato campaign.
Roberto Castelli, another senior member of the devolutionist party, said: "The idea that Nato, with all its surveillance technology, was not aware of a boat of this size is a story that not even Little Red Riding Hood would believe.
"It's not right that Italy should be the only country to carry out rescues in the Mediterranean."
Meanwhile, the Libyan regime denied a claim by rebels that one of Col Gadaffi's sons, Khamis, had been killed in a Nato airstrike on Zlitan.
Citing spies operating among the ranks of pro-Gaddafi forces as well as intercepted radio 'chatter', a spokesman for a militia group said that Khamis was among around 30 people to have died in the attack.
Khamis, 28, trained at a Russian military academy and commands the eponymous and much-feared Khamis Brigade - one of the regime's toughest fighting units.
He was reported to be masterminding the battle for Zlitan - a Gaddafi bastion that has halted the rebel advance on Tripoli.
But the report of his death was strenuously denied by Mussa Ibrahim, the government spokesman.
"Basically the news about the killing of Khamis by a NATO air strike are very dirty lies to cover the murder of civilians in the peaceful city," he said.
Nato officials in Naples, from where the alliance is coordinating the campaign, confirmed the air strike on Zlitan but made no comment about the reports of Khamis's death, which has been rumoured several times during the five month campaign.
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Các anh chị nghĩ thế nào, có ý kiến gì qua bài viết "Italy demands investigation into whether Nato warship ignored refugees" ?
Những người VN BỊ MẤT NƯỚC vào tay đảng CƯỚP csVN từ Ngày QUỐC HẬN 30 Tháng 4 Năm 1975, những người VN BỊ MẤT NƯỚC vào tay bè lũ Việt gian phản quốc cướp nước diệt chủng bán nước csVN, những người VN đã từng vượt biển trên những chiếc thuyền mong manh trên đại dương, đã từng chính mình chứng kiến cảnh những chiếc tàu lớn trên hải phận quốc tế ngỏanh mặt làm ngơ trước sự van xin kêu cứu của thuyền nhân Việt Nam chạy trốn bè lũ ÁC THÚ Việt cộng, những người tỵ nạn cộng sản đã từng đối diện với cuồng phong bão táp trên đại dương, đã từng chứng kiến người thân, người đồng hành chết trên biển cả, CÒN NHỚ gì qua hình ảnh của những người "refugees" đang tìm đường thóat khỏi bom đạn ở Libya cũng như từ các nước khác ở Trung Đông và Bắc Phi ?
Hàng trăm ngàn người VN đã bỏ mình trên biển cả, đã vùi thân vào lòng đại dương cũng CHÍNH vì bè lũ ÁC THÚ Việt gian phản quốc cướp nước diệt chủng bán nước csVN .
Những người còn sống dù không muốn nhớ, xin hãy đừng quên vì sao đã và đang có mấy triệu người VN tại hải ngọai, đừng nên vì lợi vì danh vì bạc tiền mà bán cả liêm sỉ của con người, tự nguyện làm chó ghẻ bơm hơi tiếp máu nuôi giặc Việt cộng, làm tay sai rửa mặt chùi chân, bưng bô cho giặc Việt cộng, đồng lõa với lũ súc sinh giặc Việt cộng giết dân bán nước .
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog"
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
06082011
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CSVN là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
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