Nato accuses Gaddafi of using mosques and children's parks as shields [View All]

[Turborama]

Source: The Guardian

Saturday June 18 2011 16.48 BST

Nato has accused Muammar Gaddafi of using mosques and children's parks as shields after the Libyan leader taunted the alliance in an address broadcast to protesters in Tripoli.

In a speech piped through loudspeakers to a few thousand people demonstrating in Green Square, Gaddafi railed against Nato's intensified air strikes in the capital. "Nato will be defeated," Gaddafi yelled in a hoarse, agitated voice to the crowd. "They will pull out in defeat."

Nato spokeswoman Oana Lungescu dismissed Gaddafi's speech as propaganda, and countered claims from Libya's prime minister on Friday that the alliance was deliberately targeting civilian buildings. "We are saving countless lives every day across the country," she said. "We are conducting operations with utmost care and precision to avoid civilian casualties. Civilian casualties figures mentioned by the Libyan regime are pure propaganda."

She also accused Gaddafi and his regime of "systematically and brutally attacking the Libyan people", saying government forces "have been shelling cities, mining ports and using mosques and children's parks as shields".

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/18/nato-gaddafi-mosques-childrens-parks