[ 2011-06-19 ]

Toddlers among five dead in 'NATO raid' on Tripoli
TRIPOLI (AFP) - Libyan officials showed reporters
five bodies, two of them of toddlers, that they
said died in a "barbaric" NATO air raid Sunday,
hours after international organisations urged a
political process to end the conflict.

Government 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.

He demanded that NATO end its "aggression" to pave
the way for dialogue, after organisations
including the the Arab League, the European Union
and the United Nations highlighted the importance
of "accelerating" political efforts to end a
conflict now in its fifth month.

Journalists were taken to the Al-Arada district of
Tripoli before 1 am (2300 GMT Saturday) 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.

Journalists were 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 he feared the death toll would rise
as the building was home to at least 15 people.

There was no immediate word from NATO on the
alleged air strike but if confirmed the civilian
deaths would be an embarrassment for the alliance
which has been leading the bombing campaign under
a UN mandate to protect civilians.

"It is another night of massacre, terror and
horror at the hands of NATO," the Libyan
government spokesman charged.

Western leaders "are morally and legally
responsible for these murders," Ibrahim said.

"This is not propaganda. It is not something that
we can stage."

Libyan officials has been on the defensive over
their credibility after they showed journalists a
little girl being treated in hospital two weeks
ago and said she had been wounded in a NATO air
strike. A member of the medical staff said she had
been injured in a traffic accident.

Ibrahim called on NATO to halt its "aggression"
against Libya to pave the way for dialogue to end
the conflict ravaging the North African nation.

"NATO is very good at attacking and killing people
but it is very bad at starting dialogue," he
said.

The alliance has acknowledged mis-hits in the
past, most of them involving rebel fighters
wrongly identified as loyalist troops.

Only Saturday NATO acknowleged that aircraft under
its command had accidentally hit a rebel column
near the oil refinery town of Brega on the front
line between the rebel-held east and the mainly
government-held west on Thursday.

"NATO can now confirm that the vehicles hit were
part of an opposition patrol," it said in a
statement.

"This incident occurred in an area of conflict
between Kadhafi forces and opposition forces.

"We regret any possible loss of life or injuries
caused by this unfortunate incident," NATO said.

On Friday, Prime Minister Baghdadi al-Mahmudi said
NATO-led raids had hit a university and a hotel in
Tripoli and accused the alliance of committing
"war crimes and crimes against humanity."

Source - AFP

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