NATO kills 19 Libyan civilians, wounds 150

This video is called Stop the War Hands off Libya protest | London 18th March | Aaron Kiely.

By Bill Van Auken in the USA:

NATO bombing of Tripoli kills 19 civilians, wounds 150

25 May 2011

In the most intensive bombardment since the US and NATO launched their war of aggression against Libya, strikes by British and other NATO warplanes in the early hours of Tuesday morning killed 19 Libyan civilians. Another 150 were wounded, some of them seriously, according to Libya’s health ministry, the General People’s Committee for Health.

The highly concentrated air raid, reportedly led by British Typhoon and Tornado warplanes, included up to 20 huge separate explosions in the area of central Tripoli where the residential compound of Col. Muammar Gaddafi is located. Libyan officials said that the explosions damaged a number of houses as well as a nearby mosque.

Like earlier air strikes on Tripoli—including one last month that claimed the lives of Gaddafi’s son Seif al-Arab and three of his grandchildren—Tuesday morning’s raid appeared to be aimed at decapitating the Libyan regime, or failing that, terrorizing Tripoli’s population and those who oppose NATO’s intervention.

The pretense that the US-NATO military operations are being carried out in conformity with the United Nations Security Council resolution authorizing a no-fly zone and measures to protect Libya’s civilian population has been all but abandoned. Leaders in Washington and Western Europe make no attempt to hide the reality that the aim of the war is “regime change,” and they are prepared to kill as many Libyans as necessary to accomplish that goal.

In addition to the stepped-up bombing raids, France and Britain have unveiled plans to deploy attack helicopters for the first time in Libya. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé confirmed this action, a qualitative escalation of the imperialist intervention, on Monday.

In news conference with British Prime Minister Cameron, Obama rules out deadline for ending US role in Libya: here.

Britain: Anti-poverty charity War on Want has urged David Cameron and US President Barack Obama to stop attacking Afghanistan and Libya as civilians continue to die in both wars: here.

Over 60 African refugees [from Libya], including women and children, recently died trying to reach Europe when their boat ran adrift for two weeks in the Mediterranean. Western military personnel allegedly saw the boat and did nothing to help. Now the United Nations is investigating the case. SPIEGEL talked to survivors and reconstructed the course of events: here.

HSBC and Goldman Sachs held $335m of Libyan state oil money: here.