Fresh NATO raids rocked Libyan capital as Oil Minister became on Wednesday the latest leading figure to abandon Muammar Gaddafi’s embattled regime.
Fresh NATO raids rocked Libyan capital as Oil Minister became on Wednesday the latest leading figure to abandon Muammar Gaddafi's embattled regime.
A series of six blasts at around 12:35 am (2235 GMT Wednesday) were followed by several more a few minutes later in Tripoli, the target of NATO air raids for more than a week now.
Meanwhile, Shokri Ghanem, also a former Libyan prime minister, announced his defection at a news conference in Rome, complaining of "unbearable" violence against civilians and stressing that he backed "the choice of Libyan youth to create a modern constitutional state respecting human rights and building a better future for all Libyans."
Ghanem didn't say he would join the opposition leadership in Benghazi, but his announcement has come just two days after the defections of eight army officers, including five generals and those in earlier weeks of senior diplomats and former ministers.
On the other hand, the United Nations accused both Gaddafi’s regime and opposition forces of committing crimes against humanity in their 15-week conflict.
A commission of inquiry set up by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva said it has "reached the conclusion that crimes against humanity and war crimes have been committed by the government forces of Libya," it said in a statement.
"The commission received fewer reports of facts which would amount to the commission of international crimes by opposition forces, however, it did find some acts which would constitute war crimes."
The 47-member UN Human Rights Council set up the investigation into suspected crimes against humanity in February after Gaddafi's regime dispatched Libya's army and air force to fire on civilians.
On the ground in Libya, a huge car bomb rocked a major hotel Wednesday in Benghazi, the Libyan opposition capital in the east of the country, but caused no casualties, witnesses and police said.
