Libya: NATO strike hit residential neighborhood

NATO admitted its aircraft mistakenly hit vehicles aligned with the Libyan opposition in the eastern oil city of al-Brega.NEW: At least 4 are killed and 30 injured in fighting around Dafniya, hospital records showNEW: NATO says it is looking into allegations it struck a residential neighborhoodA Libyan official blames NATO, Cameron, Sarkozy and Obama for "murder and crimes"

Dafniya, Libya (CNN) -- The Libyan government said a NATO strike hit a residential neighborhood in Tripoli on Sunday, killing at least three people, according to Libyan state TV.

It said the attack in the residential neighborhood of Aradah also injured many others.

"This is cold-blooded murder," government spokesman Musa Ibrahim said at the scene in Tripoli. "Is the the protection of civilians? Is this really the search for peace and democracy in the Libya, to attack peaceful neighborhoods of Tripoli?"

NATO said it was aware of the allegations and looking into them. On Saturday, the alliance denied earlier Libyan claims it was killing civilians and

"The claims made by Gadhafi and members of his regime are outrageous. It is Gadhafi and his regime that have been systematically and brutally attacking the Libyan people," NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu in response to Libyan government accusations.

Separately, at least four people were killed and 30 were wounded in fighting in Dafniya, west of Misrata, according to the publicly viewable hospital records at Al-Hikma hospital, which is treating casualties. At least three of the four dead are rebel fighters, according to the hospital.

Bombardments began in the Dafniya area beginning Sunday morning, and they have been continuing on a fairly regular basis since then, CNN heard.

A stream of wounded people flowed into a makeshift hospital in Dafniya, and witnesses reported seeing intense artillery fire coming from both sides of the clashes.

A local radio station in Misrata was calling for people to donate O-positive blood to meet increased demand after the fighting Sunday.

Ibrahim, the Libyan government spokesman, said the government holds NATO, British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and U.S. President Barack Obama "responsible morally and legally for this murder and crimes" for the alleged strike that killed three in Tripoli on Sunday.

State TV reported that the three people killed belonged to the same family. The network broadcast footage of a destroyed building and a chaotic scene of rescue teams and civilians pulling a body from the rubble.

The incident occurred a day after NATO acknowledged that its aircraft had mistakenly struck vehicles aligned with the Libyan opposition in the hotly contested eastern oil city of al-Brega. On Saturday, NATO expressed regret over the incident.

NATO did not provide details as to how many people, if any, died or were injured in the al-Brega strike, which took place on Thursday. But in a statement released Saturday, NATO admitted that its forces hit vehicles that were "part of an opposition patrol" -- an incident the military alliance described as "unfortunate."

For weeks, NATO forces have been targeting forces loyal to Gadhafi in an effort to prevent civilian casualties. Most of those strikes have come from missiles fired from off-shore ships or aircraft flying high above the north African nation, though earlier this month British and French attack helicopters did fly closer to the ground in al-Brega to go after targets in that city more precisely.

Al-Brega is on a frontline -- east of Gadhafi's base in Tripoli and west of the rebels headquarters in Benghazi -- in fighting that has taken place between the two sides over the past several months.

In its statement, NATO said that "a column of military vehicles, including tanks," were spotted Thursday around al-Brega where Gadhafi forces "had recently been operating." During what it called "a particularly complex and fluid battle scenario," leaders in the military alliance ordered a strike after determining these vehicles posed "a threat to civilians."

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

CNN's Ben Wedeman, Yousuf Basil and Bharati Naik contributed to this report.

CNN

Libya says NATO airstrike hits residential area (AP)

TRIPOLI, Libya – The Libyan government accused NATO of bombing a residential neighborhood in the capital and killing civilians early Sunday, adding to its charges that the alliance is striking nonmilitary targets. At least four people, including two children, were reported killed.

It was not possible to independently verify the government's account of what happened and NATO said it is investigating. The alliance has repeatedly insisted it tries hard to avoid killing civilians.

Whether they are confirmed accurate or not, the allegations are likely give Moammar Gadhafi's regime a fresh rallying point against the international intervention into Libya's civil war.

Journalists based in the Libyan capital were rushed by government officials in the early hours of the morning to the destroyed building, which appeared to have been partially under construction.

Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim wasn't immediately able to provide the number of casualties, but said there were no military facilities anywhere near the damaged building.

Journalists at the scene who were later taken to a hospital were shown at least four people said to be killed in the strike, including the two young children. Foreign journalists in Tripoli are not allowed to travel and report freely and are almost always shadowed by government minders.

"There was intentional and deliberate targeting of the civilian houses," said deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaim during a visit to the site shortly after reporters arrived. "This is another sign of the brutality of the West."

A NATO mission spokesman in Naples, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of NATO regulations, said Sunday that the alliance is aware of the reports and is investigating. But he said at the moment NATO does not know where in Tripoli the alleged airstrike occurred.

The Gadhafi regime has made false claims in the past about NATO having caused civilian deaths, the spokesman added.

Meanwhile, there was heavy shelling Saturday night and Sunday morning in the port city of Misrata, 125 miles (200 kilometers) east of the capital. Muthana Issa, an official at Hikma hospital in Misrata, said there had been four killed and 16 wounded.

For weeks rebels had been bottled up in Misrata, one of a handful of toeholds they hold in western Libya. The eastern third of the country is under rebel control from their de facto capital, Benghazi. As NATO warplanes began stepping up attacks on Libyan government forces, bases and ammunition depots in recent days, the rebels in Misrata used the distraction to start their push out of the city toward Tripoli.

Rebel fighter Mohammed Khalil said a group of rebels was ambushed early Sunday morning by Gadhafi forces near Dafniya, west of Misrata.

He said the rebels fought all night, pushing forward toward the next major town of Zlitan, then retreated back toward Dafniya. Government troops encircled them overnight, then ambushed them in an open field with AK-47s and heavy machine guns at daybreak.

He said the fighting was intense, with the two sides as close as 50 meters from each other. Five rebels were killed in the ambush, he said.

On Friday, Libyan Prime Minister al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi accused NATO of a "new level of aggression," and claimed that the military alliance intentionally targeted civilian buildings, including a hotel and a university. He has called on the United Nations to take action to stop NATO's daily bombing runs.

Libya's Health Ministry says 856 civilians have been killed in NATO airstrikes since they began in March. The figure could not be independently confirmed. Previous government tolls from individual strikes have proven to be exaggerated.

Late on Saturday, NATO announced that it had mistakenly struck a column of Libyan rebel vehicles in an airstrike near an eastern oil town two days earlier and expressed regret for any casualties that might have resulted.

The alliance has accidentally hit rebel forces before in its air campaign to protect civilians in the civil war between Gadhafi's military and the fighters trying to end his more than four decades in power.

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.

___

Associated Press writers Hadeel Al-Shalchi in Dafniya, Libya; Sarah El Deeb in Cairo and Don Melvin in Brussels contributed to this report.

Yahoo! News