US and Russia clash over Western bombing raids

RUSSIA and the US clashed over Western bombing raids in Libya, with the US defence chief saying Moscow had accepted Muammar Gaddafi’s “lies” about civilian casualties.

In a visit dominated by tensions over the Libya conflict, Robert Gates defended the air strikes against Gaddafi’s regime even as he predicted the bombing would be scaled back within days once anti-aircraft systems are taken out.

As Gates sat grim-faced next to him, Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov called for an immediate ceasefire in Libya and charged coalition forces with killing civilians in their bombing campaign.

He said civilian deaths “shouldn’t have been let to happen and we informed our US counterparts of our opposition”.

Gates, however, said international forces were careful to avoid risking civilian lives and that most targets in the strikes were located well away from cities and towns.

He later told reporters that nearly all civilian casualties in the fighting had been caused by Gaddafi’s forces and questioned Moscow’s “tone”.

“It’s almost as though some people here are taking at face value Gaddafi’s claims about the number of civilian casualties, which as far as I’m concerned is just outright lies”, he said.

Gates arrived in Moscow a day after furious comments from Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who compared the UN resolution that allowed air strikes on Libya to a medieval call to a crusade. Hours later, Mr Medvedev rebuked the prime minister: “Under no circumstances is it acceptable to use expressions that essentially lead to a clash of civilisations such as crusades and so on.”

The Russian president defended the decision to abstain in last week’s vote at the UN and characterised the resolution as a legitimate response to Gaddafi’s “crimes against his own people”.