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Incident

Libya says NATO airstrike kills 15 west of capital

20 June 2011 22:10 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Libya’s government said a NATO airstrike west of Tripoli early Monday on a large family compound belonging to a close associate of Moammar Gadhafi has killed at least 15 people, including three children, APA reports quoting â€œAssociated Pressâ€.

A NATO official in Naples, Italy, said the alliance has not conducted any strikes in that area in the past 24 hours. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of NATO regulations.

Gadhafi’s regime has repeatedly accused NATO of targeting civilians in an attempt to rally support against the alliance’s intervention in the country’s civil war. NATO has repeatedly insisted it tries to avoid killing civilians.

Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said alliance bombs struck the compound belonging to Khoweildi al-Hamidi outside the city of Surman, some 40 miles (60 kilometers) west of Tripoli, around 4 a.m. local time Monday.

Ibrahim said al-Hamidi, a former military officer who took part in the 1969 coup that brought Gadhafi to power, escaped unharmed but that three children were among those killed, two of them al-Hamidi’s grandchildren. Officials said he was inside a still-intact building at the time of the strike.

"They (NATO) are targeting civilians. ... The logic is intimidation," Ibrahim said. "They want Libyans to give up the fight ... they want to break our spirit."

Foreign journalists based in the Libyan capital were taken by government officials to the walled compound, where at least two buildings had been blasted to rubble. A pair of massive craters could be seen in the dusty ground, and rescue service workers with sniffer dogs were scouring the rubble in search of people. The smell of smoke was still in the air.

Damage could be seen elsewhere in the compound, including at a large tent where cars were kept and at circular sitting room containing old framed photos said to be of al-Hamidi. A deer kept in an enclosure with other animals had a broken antler and was bleeding from the mouth.

Another building outside the compound, next to a communications tower, was also obliterated, causing damage to an adjacent house. A mosque across the street and a school next door were not damaged.

Journalists were later taken to a hospital in the nearby city of Sabratha, where medical workers showed them the bodies of about eight to 10 people, including those of two children, said to have been killed in the strike. Some of the bodies appeared charred, while others were in pieces. Portraits of Gadhafi hung on the hospital walls as armed men in military fatigues â€” some guards from the compound â€” roamed the hallways.

NATO, which has a mandate to protect Libyan civilians, has rejected the Libyan government’s allegations that it targets civilians. However, mistakes have occurred.

The alliance acknowledged that one of its airstrikes on Sunday accidentally struck a residential neighborhood in the capital, killing civilians.

A coalition including France, Britain and the United States launched the first strikes against Gadhafi’s forces under a United Nations resolution to protect civilians on March 19. NATO, which is joined by a number of Arab allies, assumed control of the air campaign over Libya on March 31.