[Al Jazeera] The Libyan government says 19 civilians have been killed in a 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 strike on the home of one of Muammar Qadaffy's brass hats, a day after the Western military alliance admitted killing civilians in a separate attack.
Libyan officials took news hounds to Surman, 70km west of Tripoli, to the site of what they said was a NATO air strike on the home of Khouildi Hamidi.
The officials said the attack on the home of Hamidi, a member of Libya's 12-strong Revolutionary Command Council, led by Qadaffy, took place on Monday morning.
Rescue teams were looking for survivors while news hounds visited the site.
Reporters were then taken to a hospital in nearby Sabrata where they were shown nine bodies, including those of two children, plus some body parts, which the officials said were all of people killed in the attack.
| This may even be true, or partially true. |
The dead included members of Hamidi's family, it said. The government said Hamidi himself was not hurt.
'Legitimate military target'
NATO said it had bombed a "legitimate military target, a command and control node" in the area, and it could not confirm whether civilians had been hurt. It said NATO did not target specific individuals.
"This was a clear strike by NATO on a high value command and control node used to co-ordinate attacks against civilians," NATO military front man Mike Bracken said in a statement on Tuesday.
"NATO is aware of allegations that this strike caused casualties... that is something we cannot verify."
Bracken also addressed claims on Libyan state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
that a NATO Apache attack helicopter came down over Libya. He confirmed that NATO had lost an unmanned helicopter drone over Libya, but he denied the report that it was a manned Apache air craft.
"NATO confirms it has not lost any attack helicopter," he said, adding that an "unmanned autonomous helicopter drone" was on an intelligence surveillance mission over Libya and lost contact with its command centre.
"We are looking into the reasons behind the incident," he said.