Libya said 15 people including three children were killed in a NATO air strike Monday, although the Western alliance denied responsibility a day after it admitted causing civilian deaths in Tripoli.
The government spokesman accused NATO of a 'cowardly terrorist act which cannot be justified' as journalists were shown damaged buildings on the sprawling estate of a veteran comrade of Muammar Gaddafi west of the capital and nine corpses, as well as body parts including one of a child.
But the alliance insisted no aircraft under its command had been operating in the Sorman area, 70 kilometres from Tripoli.
'We strongly deny that this thing in Sorman is us,' a NATO official in Brussels said. 'We have not been operating there.'
Journalists were taken on an escorted tour of the estate of Khuwildi Hemidi, who served on the Revolution Command Council which Gaddafi set up when he seized power in 1969.
Later the journalists were driven to the Sabratha hospital, some 10 kilometres away, where an AFP correspondent saw nine corpses, including the bodies of two children.
There were also body parts of other victims, including a child's head.
Journalists also witnessed a number of dead animals among the peacocks, ostriches and gazelles kept in the estate's grounds.
A second Libyan official charged that eight missiles had struck the estate at 4:00am (0200 GMT).
He said most of the dead were members of Hemidi's family, including two of his grandchildren, and that the rest came from two other families living on the estate.
Hemidi himself escaped unharmed, the official added.
The new Libyan claim of civilian deaths came just hours after NATO acknowledged that one of its missiles had gone astray early on Sunday and struck a residential neighbourhood of Tripoli.
Reporters were shown the bodies of five of the nine people Libyan officials said were killed in that strike, one of them a woman and two of them toddlers.
That admission was a major boost to the credibility of the Libyan authorities two weeks after officials showed journalists a little girl in hospital they said had been wounded in a NATO air strike, only for a member of the medical staff to say she had been injured in a traffic accident.
It was also an embarrassment for the alliance which has led the bombing campaign in Libya under a UN mandate to protect civilians.
An alliance statement released in Brussels said 'NATO acknowledges civilian casualties in Tripoli strike' during action targeting a missile site.
'It appears that one weapon did not strike the intended target and that there may have been a weapons system failure which may have caused a number of civilian casualties,' the statement added.
The Libyan government spokesman insisted there were no military targets anywhere near the Al-Arada district of Tripoli that was hit.
But rebels fighting Gaddafi's four-decade rule blamed the veteran strongman for the deaths, charging that his forces were deliberately using schools and mosques to stash arms.
Source : New Age
