Condolences To The Martyrs Of NATO’s Attack On Zawiya

Lizzie Phelan

Today we received the terrible news, that is likely to be disgracefully spun by the international media as “legitimate” targeting of the assassination of government spokesman, Dr Moussa Ibrahim’s, younger brother Hassan and three of his friends.

They were assassinated by a British Apache gunship in Zawiya. The media is going to claim that because he was armed (although we have no verification of this) he was a legitimate military target. But that would make the vast majority of Libyans over the age of 18 a “legitimate target”, as since the beginning of this crisis, vast numbers have taken up the government’s offer of weapons training and government issued arms. Indeed most of the country is armed to protect themselves from the “rebels” (what Libyans call “rats”) and the threat of foreign mercenaries from the NATO states or Qatar.

Dr Moussa Ibrahim

Hassan was a 25 year old student. He was watching the TV yesterday and heard the reports about the rebels entering Zawiya and also heard that the rebels were committing atrocities against families there. He had a number of peers at university that were from Zawiya and so he was naturally worried about his friends. He had been unable to get in touch with them by telephone and one of his friends had heard that they had been killed by the rebels.

They went to find out what had happened, and when they reached Zawiya they found the situation was completely different from how the media had been reporting.

The fighting was nowhere near the city centre of Zawiya, where life was normal and relatively safe, except for the NATO bombardment. He witnessed no fighting there and so decided to return to Tripoli, but his friend convinced him to spend some more days there for a Ramadan break.

Today, an Apache helicopter came out of nowhere and assassinated him and two of his friends.

Like all the martyrs during this criminal aggression against Libya, I send my deepest condolences to Hassan and his comrades’ families. It is sacrifices such as this which remind the world what the Libyan people are fighting for.

It is the rebels failure to capture Zawiya and other Libyan cities peacefully, or with any semblance of popular support, that has led the arrogant NATO to attempt to create facts on the ground through attacks such as these and the intensive bombardment of Zawiya of late.

The African Union, Latin American Nations and others are all calling on the North Atlantic Terrorist Organisation to respect the Libyan government’s repeated demands for an immediate ceasefire, to stop the death of more innocent Libyans.

This call is not a sign of weakness on the part of the Libyan government, but the just call of a nation that wants peace. On the contrary, the Libyan government remains strong with the defiant support of its people, and despite attempts to starve and inflict hardship on the Libyan nation by bombing food factories and electricity and telecommunications facilities, as well as the blocking of ships in the Mediterranean carrying fuel, the government has managed thus far to ensure this has a minimal effect on daily life.

The only obstacle to that peace is the illegal intervention by the NATO states and those in the Persian Gulf.


An Apache Helicopter fired on innocent civilians celebrating the defeat of the rebels, they were in a central square of Zawia. Mousa Ibrahim, The Libyan Government Spokesman, his brother was amongst those celebrating, and was killed by NATO.

The source is a resident of Tripoli and a member of a NGO.

Leave a comment