Libya: Indiscriminate Attacks Kill Civilians

Libyan government forces have launched indiscriminate rocket and mortar attacks on residential neighborhoods in the rebel-held city of Misrata, Human Rights Watch said today. One strike, apparently by a Grad rocket, killed at least eight civilians waiting in line for bread. Another attack, apparently with a mortar round, hit a medical clinic, wounding four others.

At least 16 civilians have been killed in indiscriminate attacks since April 14, 2011, Human Rights Watch said, based on witness and survivor accounts, as well as inspections of the impact sites. Human Rights Watch found no evidence of military activity in the areas that came under attack, and witnesses said rebel fighters were not present in those areas when the attacks took place.

Rocket fragments and remains, some with the markings intact, indicate that a barrage of rockets that hit one residential neighborhood was Soviet-designed Grads, which are unguided rockets often fired in salvos to cover a wide area.

"Libyan government forces have repeatedly fired mortars and Grad rockets into residential neighborhoods in Misrata, causing civilian casualties," said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch. "The Soviet-made Grad in particular is one of the world's most inaccurate rocket systems and should never be fired in areas with civilians."

These indiscriminate attacks come alongside the use by Libyan government forces of cluster munitions in civilian-populated areas of Misrata, documented by Human Rights Watch on April 15.

Misrata is the only rebel-held city in Libya's west. Government forces have tried to retake control of the city for about seven weeks. According to doctors in the city who are keeping track of the death toll, more than 267 bodies have been brought to hospital morgues as of April 15, the majority of them civilians. The number of dead is higher because some families have not brought their relatives to the morgues, the doctors said.

In addition to the rocket that landed on the bread line in front of the bakery on April 14, another rocket that day hit the home of a sheikh adjacent to a mosque, and at least four others hit private homes. Human Rights Watch saw the remains of one Grad lodged in the side of a family's pick-up truck parked in their garage and another on a residential street.

On April 16, government forces hit the parking lot just outside the Zawiyat el-Mahjoub medical clinic in the residential Zawiya neighborhood, apparently with an 82mm high explosive mortar round, spraying shrapnel into the clinic that wounded a medical technician and three other civilians, Human Rights Watch said.

According to witnesses, the rocket and mortar fire all came from government positions outside the city, which they are familiar with after seven weeks of fighting. The rebels in the city appear poorly armed, often sharing weapons, and have not been seen with either Grad rockets or mortars, Human Rights Watch said.