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Italy 'warned' Libya of US attack
Posted by:giorgio 69 days ago • Discuss
Rome, October 30 - Italy warned Libya about the United States' plan to bomb Tripoli a day before the attack in 1986, Libyan Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdel-Rahman Shalgam said at a Rome press conference Thursday. The warning by then Italian premier Bettino Craxi may have helped save the life of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and most of his family, whose house in Tripoli was hit during the bombings, Shalgam added. ''Premier Craxi sent an Italian friend we had in common to tell me, 'Watch out, on April 14 or 15 there will be an American raid against Libya,'' said the minister, who at the time was the Libyan ambassador in Rome. The then Italian foreign minister, Giulio Andreotti, confirmed Shalgam's story, adding that the U.S. bombing of Tripoli and Bengasi on April 14 had been ''a totally improper initiative, an international error''. U.S. president Ronal Reagan ordered the bombing in retaliation for a terrorist attack attributed to Libyan agents on a Berlin disco, La Belle, which was full of U.S. soldiers. Three people died and over 200 were injured when a bomb hidden under a table exploded on April 5. British prime minister Margaret Thatcher was the only European premier who gave permission for U.S. forces to use airbases for the retaliatory attack, which lasted 12 minutes and hit military bases and barracks in the two cities as well as Gaddafi's residence and some civilian buildings. Over 20 people were killed in the bombings, including Gaddafi's 15-month-old adopted daughter, although the rest of the Libyan leader's family was able to flee moments before. ''It was difficult to know the exact time and place of the attack,'' Shalgam explained. The Maltese press has claimed in the past that then premier Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici called to warn Gaddafi when U.S planes were spotted in Maltese airspace. Libya reacted to the bombings by launching missiles against U.S. coastguard stations on the southern Italian island of Lampedusa ''and certainly not against Italy'', Shalgam said. The U.S. bombing was one of a series of events that led up to the 1988 hijacking and bombing of a Pan Am passenger plane over Lockerbie, Scotland, in which 270 people died. Libya assumed responsibility for the Lockerbie incident in 2003. Shalgam was in Rome for a press conference on a friendship and cooperation accord which aims to resolve issues related to Italy's colonial occupation of Libya. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini repeated an invitation for Gaddafi to visit Italy, where he said he would be welcomed ''as a friend''. Photo: Libyan Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdel-Rahman Shalgam and Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, in Rome on Thursday.
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