Libyan man threatens NATO with legal action for family’s deaths

A Libyan man's attorney has threatened to take legal action against NATO for the killings of his client's family members in the alliance’s air strikes in Libya last year. Ali Jefara’s Belgian attorney Ghislain Dubois demanded that NATO pay his client 100,000 euros (about USD 125,000) in blood money within eight days, threatening that the case would be taken to court should the alliance fail to pay the amount, AFP reported on Wednesday. Jefara lost his brother, his sister-in-law, two nieces, and a nephew in an overnight air strike in the northwestern city of Bani Walid, 170 kilometers southeast of Tripoli, on August 29-30. In a letter to NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Dubois stated that investigations by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch “concluded that a NATO blunder exclusively hit civilian populations.” NATO warplanes carried out 26,500 sorties, including about 9,600 strike missions, over Libya from March 2011 to October 2011. According to Libyan National Transitional Council Chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil, about 25,000 people were killed and 50,000 others injured from February 2011 to October 2011. On May 14, Human Rights Watch said that NATO's bombing campaign in Libya killed 72 civilians in eight attacks that the group investigated and the military bloc was obligated to accept responsibility. In a 76-page report, the human ights group called on NATO to provide "prompt and suitable compensation" to families for the civilian deaths, injuries, and damage of property. Human Rights Watch investigators at the sites of eight NATO airstrikes discovered that 20 women and 24 children were among the 72 civilian victims. The Libyan Health Ministry says that over 850 civilians were killed in NATO airstrikes against the regime of former dictator Muammar Gaddafi. In March, Amnesty International said that it had investigated the cases of 55 civilians, including 16 children and 14 women, who were killed in the NATO airstrikes on Libya. NATO officials claim that all of its targets were military objectives, but have not provided any specific information supporting the claims.