Libyan rebels hit by NATO air attack ... again.

[howard112211]

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2011/04/20114711651619495.html

A NATO air attack has hit a Libyan rebel position near the eastern oil town of Brega, killing at least five fighters, according to rebel fighters and a hospital worker. Thursday's attack also left at least 10 others wounded, witnesses and correspondents of the AFP news agency said.
....
It was the second time in less than a week that rebels blamed NATO for bombing their comrades by mistake. Thirteen died in an air raid not far from the same spot on Saturday.
....
"We were standing by our tanks and NATO fired two rockets at us," said one, Salem Mislat. "NATO are liars. They are siding with Gaddafi."

Clusterfuck in the making.

[BOG PERSON]

1. lol

hope this wasn't in response to yet another celebratory anti-aircraft missile.

[Distant Observer]

9. WHAT AT TRAGEDY

[elias49]

2. Way to win friends and influence people. nt

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

3. Iraq = FUBAR. Afghanistan = FUBAR. Libya = FUBAR.

At least we have a consistent record.

[Distant Observer]

4. Impossible! US/Nato is only attacking HEAVY ARMOR not defenceless individuals

All bombing is HUMANITARIAN

Our strikes are "precision."

Mistakes are not made.

There are no civilians killed --even thought endless megatons of explosives are dropped.

[BOG PERSON]

5. in NATO's defense

many of those rebels are clearly too dumb to live.

[Distant Observer]

6. WRONG.! It just betrays the LIE that rebel forces are not using MASSIVE MISSILE launchers

in the field. It is not clear to me, from what I see, who is more dangerous to civilian life -- the rocket launchers of the Gov. or the mulitple missile launchers with which rebels have been equipped. When I see the "rebels" using these death machines on the back of trucks, blasting away at the city, I don't know how they know that they are not killing civilians.

I don't see any diff between the indiscriminate barrages of the rebels and the same by the Gov.
The probably looks the same to NATO planes from miles up in the sky.

[EFerrari]

8. Their killing is good killing. Remember, monster, atrocities, WMD.

:sarcasm:

[Distant Observer]

10. Ok, Let's just admit it: The whole episode is a MONSTROUS FRAUD

[Hugabear]

7. Okay, who didn't see this coming? - n/t

n/t

[howard112211]

14. Actually this is quite expected, for a number of reasons

not the least of which being that the government forces now clearly have an incentive to use inconspicuous vehicles and fight without uniform, and likely are doing so. Further, I suspect if this conflict drags on, infiltration and the spreading of false intelligence will increasingly become a component, so this sort of thing is likely to happen more often.

We have beaten down the regular forces of the Libyan military, or at least made it impossible for them to operate as such, which means that what we have now is two guerilla forces pitted against each other.

If anyone thinks "protecting civilians" is an objective here, they are fools. No one in their right mind would make such strategic decisions as we have made, if the first priority was to minimize deaths.

[Distant Observer]

11. BBC Video showed such massive trailers with huge MULTIPLE MISSILE LAUNCERS of the rebels

it is not surprising that some naive pilot who is being told the rebels are "poorly armed" would
assume that they were destroying the Gov military force.

[PurityOfEssence]

12. So where are our genius warhawks in this thread?

Certainly this warrants some attention.

[Distant Observer]

13. Waiting for TRUTH of how our missile REALY DON'T KILL ANYONE EXCEPT DEMONIC ENEMIES

[Rage for Order]

15. Libyan rebels: be careful what you wish for

Oh, and I wouldn't recommend standing next to tanks either.