Reply #107: US: Libya death toll could be as high as 30,000 [View All]

[tabatha]

Associated Press
Posted: 04/27/2011 11:21:14 AM PDT

WASHINGTON—An Obama administration official says estimates of the death toll in Libya after more than two months of violence could reach as high as 30,000.

Gene Cretz, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, says it is very hard to gauge how many people have died in strongman Moammar Gadhafi's crackdown on protesters and the subsequent fighting between rebels and pro-government forces.

Cretz says that U.S. officials have seen figures ranging from 10,000 to 30,000.

He told reporters Wednesday in Washington that the U.S. keeps getting reports of "bodies that have been uncovered on the beach" as it maintains communication with contacts it established when it operated an embassy in Libya.

Cretz warned: "We just have no sense of the scale of this thing until it's over."

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_17940322?nclick_check=1