NATO acknowledges ‘it’s responsible’ for civilian deaths
“Libyan overnment spokesman Mussa Ibrahim accused the Western alliance of ‘deliberately targeting civilians’, insisting there were no military targets anywhere near the residential neighbourhood of the capital that was hit. NATO has acknowledged it’s responsible for civilian deaths during a Tripoli bombing raid, after Libyan officials claimed toddlers among nine dead. An alliance statement says NATO has acknowledged civilian casualties in a Tripoli strike during action targeting a Libyan military missile site. The statement says one weapon missed the intended target and a possible weapons system failure may have caused a number of civilian casualties. Ibrahim demanded that the alliance end its ‘aggression’ to pave the way for dialogue, speaking just hours after organisations including the the Arab League, the European Union and the United Nations highlighted the importance of ‘accelerating the launch of a political process’ to end the conflict. Western journalists were taken to the Al-Arada district of Tripoli before 1am (0900 AEST) to see rescue teams helped by bystanders desperately searching for survivors among the wreckage of a two-storey block of flats. An AFP correspondent saw two bodies pulled from the rubble. The international media was then taken to a Tripoli hospital where they were shown the bodies of a woman and two toddlers that officials said were members of the same family and had died in the raid. Ibrahim said that four passers-by were also killed, bringing the death toll to nine, and that 18 people were wounded. A NATO official in Brussels confirmed that the alliance had had planes in the air over Tripoli during the past 24 hours and later acknowledged responsibility for the civilian deaths, an embarrassment for the alliance which has been leading the bombing campaign under a UN mandate to protect civilians”
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