NATO protects more civilians in Zlitan – by killing them

Mohamed and Motez al-Mrabet, ages 5 and 3 and their mother Ibtisam were killed by RAF / NATO bombs in Zlitan on Thurday.

CNN reports that at the funeral Abubakr Ali watched volunteers carefully bury the bodies of his sister and two nephews next to the neighborhood mosque. According the family a third child, Naji aged 8, is in serious condition in hospital.

“This was a civilian home. No army, no military, no Gadhafi forces. It’s a family sleeping safely in their place,” he said. “This is the protection of civilians.”

This follows quickly upon the attacks on the Libyan water infrastructure and on a clinic in Zlitan.

Footage of the reaction of people of Zlitan, relatives and of the victims (graphic):

NATO’s regular email update indicates they have hit the following key targets on Thursday:

In the vicinity of Zlitan : 1 Ammunition Storage Facility, 1 Military Facility, 2 Multiple Rocket Launchers, 1 Surface to Air Missal [sic] System . (To which can be appended 1 House, 2 Kids 1 Mother)

Tweet by Maj Gen Nick Pope, the Chief of Defence Staff’s Strategic Communications Officer and Ministry of Defence spokesman on military operations, omits any mention of the civilians killed:

Can you imagine if they had been American or British?

An article in The Telegraph reports that there is a strong racial element in the conflict between Misrata and Zlitan, with many inhabitants of Zlitan being descendents of slaves. Human Rights Investigations has reported before on the ethnic cleansing of Misrata and on the Misratan “Brigade to purge slaves, black skin.”

The RAF is now acting as the air arm to this ethnic cleansing.