Baghdad: Washington said on Thursday it was
"ludicrous" to accuse it of a role in the killing of Libya's
Muammar Gaddafi after Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
said US Special Forces were involved.
"The assertion that US special operations forces were
involved in the killing of Colonel Gaddafi is ludicrous," US
Defence Secretary Leon Panetta's spokesman, Captain John
Kirby, said.
"The killing of Gaddafi has been very well documented
publicly -- the circumstances surrounding it and whom in fact
was responsible for it," he said in Baghdad where he was
accompanying the Pentagon chief for a flag-lowering ceremony
marking the end of the war in Iraq.
"The circumstances speak for themselves on how Colonel
Kadhafi met his fate," added Kirby.
"We did not have American boots on the ground in the
Libya operation. All our support was done through the air and
on the seas."
Speaking in his annual televised phone-in with
Russians, Putin had accused the US special forces of being
involved in Gaddafi's killing, the first time Moscow has
pointed the finger at Washington.
"Who did this?" Putin asked.
"Drones, including American ones. They attacked his
column. Then using the radio -- through the special forces,
who should not have been there -- they brought in the
so-called opposition and fighters, and killed him without
court or investigation."
PTI
First Published: Thursday, December 15, 2011, 20:57