Libya's new government has drastically reduced its estimate of the number of people who were killed in the revolution against Muammar Gaddafi's regime, concluding that 4,700 rebel supporters died and 2,100 are missing, with unconfirmed similar casualty figures on the opposing side.
Miftah Duwadi, the deputy minister of martyrs and missing persons, told the Libya Herald newspaper that the numbers for revolutionary losses were still being checked but officials did not expect any major changes.
Arguments about casualty figures have become bound up in bitter political disagreements about the 2011 conflict. Opponents of Nato's armed intervention in support of the uprising often argue that it caused many more deaths than would have been the case without it.
The UN security council authorised action to protect Libyan civilians from the Gaddafi regime but Russia, China and other critics believe that the western alliance exceeded that mandate and moved to implement regime change.
Initially rebel officials believed that some 50,000 people had been killed, a figure that was revised down to 25,000 dead and 4,000 missing in October 2011. The latest statistics have been compiled after research by the ministry, though they do not include the final figure for fatalities on the Gaddafi side.
"I can't tell you the exact figure but, as of now, the number of martyrs from the side of revolutionaries is in the range of 4,700,″ Duwadi told the paper. "But the number of missing persons from both … sides [Gaddafi forces and revolutionaries] is around 2,100. We are working hard to finish the final numbers. It is very important for the reconciliation process as well, that we know the exact [total] losses."
During the eight-month conflict, the rebels' National Transitional Council, which was backed by western and Arab governments, estimated that tens of thousands of people had been killed by Gaddafi's forces, while the regime accused the rebels and Nato of being responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians. The ministry's research so far suggests that the death toll for the old regime may be about the same as among revolutionaries, if not less, the paper said.