Italia advarte Moammar Gadaffi om at USA kom til å bombe ham og hans familie etter at to amerikanske soldater var drept på et diskotek i Berlin. Det sier nåværende libyske utenriksminister som den gang var ambassadør til Italia. Daværende utenriksminister Andreotti bekrefter historien.

Libya’s foreign minister, Mohammed Abdel-Rahman, said that the then Italian prime minister, Bettino Craxi, sent him a message «one or two days» before the US bombing.

«The (prime minister) sent me a message through a mutual friend to tell me… that there (would be) an American raid against Libya,» Mr Abdel-Rahman, who at the time was Libya’s ambassador to Italy, said in Rome.

«It was difficult to know the exact time and place of the attack,» he said, but the tip-off possibly saved Col Gaddaffi’s life.

His claims were confirmed by Giulio Andreotti, who was Italy’s foreign affairs minister at the time. «The American raid was a completely inappropriate measure, a huge mistake,» said Mr Andreotti.

Asked if Libya’s version of events were correct, he said: «I would say so, yes.»

The American raids on Tripoli and Benghazi on April 15, 1986, killed around 40 people.

Utenriksminsterens uttalelser er påfallende. Tidligere presiden Fransesco Cossiga kom i august med noen utrolige uttalelser om at Italia på 70-tallet ga palestinske terrorgrupper frihet til å operere på italiensk jord, hvis de unnlot å angripe italienere. Men jøder og israelere var det ikke så farlig med. De varslet man ikke. Cossiga påsto også at det var palestinere som sto bak den verste terrorudåden i italiensk historie: bomben på jernbanestasjonen i Bologna.

Problemet er at Cossiga har sagt mye rart. For en tid tilbake sa han at alle visste at det var CIA og Mossad som sto bak 9/11.

Libya er inne i varmen igjen. Ikke alle er like begeistret for det. Gadaffis regimes er fortsatt brutalt mot interne kritikere.

Mr Abdel-Rahman was in Rome for a press conference on a US $5bn friendship accord, signed in August, which aims to resolve issues related to Italy’s colonial occupation of Libya.

The Italian foreign minister, Franco Frattini, repeated an invitation for Col Gaddaffi to visit Italy, where he said he would be welcomed «as a friend».

Mr Frattini called Libya «a reliable country, recognised as such by the international community».

Italy ‘tipped off’ Libya about 1986 US raid
Italy tipped off Libyan leader Muammar Gaddaffi about a US bombing raid in 1986 and probably saved his life, senior diplomats have said.