(Previous Incident Code: LN037)

On September the 16th, 2011, NATO allegedly bombed a residential building in Sirte called Al Ta’amin building which led to at least two killed and two injured.

According to an Amnesty International report: “At least two residents were killed in two apartments in different parts of the building. ‘Aisha Abdul Jalil al-Mazughi, a mother of two, was killed as she, her husband, Mahmoud Zarruq Masa’ud, and their two young daughters were in their apartment on the fifth floor of the building. The two girls and their father sustained light injuries. Another resident, 27-year-old ‘Ali Omar Mohammed Suleiman, whose family lived in an apartment on the third floor, was killed in the strikes.”

The NATO strike time is contested, Amnesty reported that the strike started at 6 pm and Human Rights Watch claimed that it was at 7 pm on September 16th 2011.

According to Reuters ” NATO attacked the city of Sirte last night with more than 30 rockets directed at the city’s main hotel and the Al Ta’amin building, which consists of more than 90 residential flats,” Gaddafi spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said in a call from a satellite phone to the Reuters office in Tunis which resulted in more than 354 dead and 89 still missing and almost 700 injured in one night,” he added. The Al Ta’meen building is a landmark building in the centre of Sirte.” However, it is to be noted that Reuters was unable to verify Ibrahim’s account of the incident. Gaddafi-held areas have been cut off from communication since the fall of Tripoli.

Different local sources reported that hundreds of civilians were killed and dozens were injured due to the NATO’s bombing of the Al Ta’amin residential building.

Independent reports by human rights NGOs after the civil war assessed that claims by the Gaddafi regime had been hugely exaggerated.

NATO on that day reported hitting “5 Command and Controle Nodes, 3 Radar Systems, 4 Armed Vehicles, 8 Air Missile Systems” in the vicinity of Sirte.