NATO Bombing Civilians in Benghazi?

June 14 2011

Yesterday afternoon, I noticed the following unusual story on the blog of Leonor Massanet, an Italian blogger in Libya. A day old by then, she herself calls it (translated) "the biggest surprise of this conflict," which means something. The text, auto-translated from Italian:

Today, NATO has bombed Benghazi, killing 90 armed rebels and there are 20 injured in hospital.
No one knows why. 

At present there are two groups of armed rebels in the east that they are facing and killing each other.
At the moment we do not know why.

Nearly a day later, Google searches show nothing to add to this reported, first-ever, NATO assault on the capitol of its foot soldiers against Gaddafi. Further explanation falls again to Leonor. In a comment beneath that, she added:

The information that I give are from people who have proved they are honest and are not fans because I know very well. These people are involved in the conflict and have relatives or friends in most parts of Libya including the army, plus things I have said the Libyan TV. Yet his speech is usually inaccurate. The Libyans were amazed by this news and do not understand it either. We can only hope a few days and see what happens. 

Yesterday I said that the armed rebel group has been a split because of disagreements and as NATO bombs where they are told. The rebels say the French that they are in Benghazi and in NATO, so there are some interests that are bombing the rebels and NATO do not realize until it happened. Again I speak for the Libyan view of the street.

So if I'm reading this right, the prevailing theory is there are warring factions within the rebel movement that have come into open conflict, and one side called in a NATO strike on the other, with NATO presumably thinking they were hitting Gaddafi soldiers ... way up in Benghazi? That was a threat on March 19, but never a reality nor even much of a worry since then.

And a follow-up post from Tuesday (yesterday):

Seems to be clarifying the reason why NATO bombed yesterday an area of ​​Benghazi that killed 90 people, 20 seriously wounded and 80 wounded treated differently.
The Libyans living in the Benghazi area said they were declared out of this movement of the rebels and that they wanted nothing to do with either one side or another.
Next Friday is a great move program in Benghazi against the rebels and had the suspicion that this move comes out of this neighborhood.

A neighborhood thought to house anti-rebel, anti-NATO (?), andti-Gaddafi (?) elements planning some kind of movement on Friday, now bombed by NATO on Monday. This is a fascinating alleged story that deserves some documentation, details, video evidence, and so on - if it's true. I'll be watching especially for Youtube videos from Libyan TV. Channels to watch: Rayyisse, On to Denver.