[Dawn] Libyan officials showed news hounds five bodies, two of them of toddlers, they said were among nine civilians killed in a "barbaric" NATO...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants...
air raid Sunday, as pressure mounted on the alliance to allow a political solution.
| Were they still cold from the freezers? It is said Saddam Hussein collected dead babies for years, to have them on hand when attacked by those with gullible news media. |
| To be fair, didn't we kill a chemical weapons factory disguised as a baby milk company, last time we were in the neighborhood? |
Ibrahim demanded that the alliance end its "aggression" to pave the way for dialogue, speaking just hours after organizations including the the Arab League,
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
the European Union and the United Nations
...what started out as a a diplomatic initiative, now trying to edge its way into legislative, judicial, and executive areas...
highlighted the importance of "accelerating the launch of a political process" to end the conflict.
Journalists were taken to the al-Arada district of Tripoli before 1 am 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 that four passers-by were also killed, bringing the corpse count to nine, and that 18 people were maimed.
A NATO official in Brussels confirmed that the alliance had planes in the air over Tripoli over the past 24 hours.
"We're aware of the claim made by the Libyan regime and we're looking into it," a second NATO official told AFP.
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
| .*sigh* In the olden days it was understood that standing near a target increased one's probability of being hit. But now everyone plays video games... |
| War is heck, it is said. |
"This is not propaganda. It is not something that we can stage." Libyan officials have 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 maimed in a NATO air strike. A member of the medical staff said she had been injured in a traffic accident.
| Oh dear. That will certainly bring into question any future claims. |
"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.
| But not one disguised as a baby milk company. |
"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 Qadaffy forces and opposition forces.
"We regret any possible loss of life or injuries caused by this unfortunate incident," NATO said.