Saturday, March 26, 2011

Coalition strikes killed 114 in four days — health ministry

TRIPOLI—At least 114 people have been killed and 445 wounded in four days of coalition strikes on Libya, a health ministry official said on Friday.

"From March 20 to March 23, raids (by the coalition) killed 114 people and wounded 445 others," the official, Khaled Omar, told a news conference in the Libyan capital.

But he was not able to say how many were civilian casualties and how many were from the armed forces.

Omar said 104 people were killed in Tripoli and the suburbs between Sunday and Wednesday, while 10 were killed in Sirte, the hometown of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, some 600 kilometres (372 miles) south of the capital.

A government spokesman, giving a provisional toll, had said on Thursday that almost 100 "civilians" were killed in the coalition raids launched Saturday against Gadhafi's forces. (report from Agence France-Presse)