- TRIPOLI, Libya (Reuters)
-- Muammar Gaddafi said Sunday he regretted that former U.S. President
Ronald Reagan had died without ever being tried for 1986 air strikes that
killed dozens of people, including the Libyan leader's adopted daughter.
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- "I express my profound regrets over Reagan's death
before he appeared before justice to be held to account for his ugly crime
in 1986 against Libyan children," Gaddafi told the official JANA news
agency.
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- Reagan ordered the April 15, 1986, air strikes in response
to a disco bombing in West Berlin that killed three people, including two
U.S. servicemen. Washington blamed Libya for the blast.
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- Libya said more than 40 people died in the strikes on
Tripoli and Benghazi. The targets included Gaddafi's home, where his 15-month-old
adopted daughter died.
-
- Reporting Reagan's death, JANA simply referred to him
as former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's partner "in the
unsuccessful American-Atlantic (NATO) aggression" on Gaddafi's home.
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- Libya, which recently emerged from international isolation
over its alleged support for "terrorism," has been promoting
better ties with the United States since agreeing in December to dismantle
its programs of weapons of mass destruction.
-
- It was not immediately clear if Gaddafi's comments would
affect the progress in relations between the two countries.
-
- President Bush suspended sanctions against Libya in April,
allowing U.S. firms to buy Libyan oil and invest in its economy. Tensions
between the two countries were highest under Reagan, who recalled his ambassador
in Tripoli after angry crowds sacked the U.S. embassy in 1980. The United
States imposed an embargo on Libyan oil in 1982 and U.S. oil companies
pulled out.
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- In January 1986, Reagan moved to isolate Libya further
after accusing Gaddafi of sponsoring international terrorism and harboring
the Palestinian Abu Nidal guerrilla group, blamed for attacks on airports
in Rome and Vienna the previous month.
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- Reagan announced new economic sanctions against Libya
banning trade, loans and travel to Libya by U.S. citizens.
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- Tensions culminated in a military confrontation in March
1986, when Libya fired missiles at U.S. aircraft during U.S. military maneuvers
in the Gulf of Sirte. The United States responded by attacking Libyan patrol
boats and a land-based missile site at Sirte.
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- http://news.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=535371
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