NATO: Errant Strike May Have Killed Civilians in Libya

NATO has admitted another accidental airstrike by its forces may have killed civilians in the Libyan capital, Tripoli.

The alliance said the air strikes were launched against a military missile site in Tripoli Sunday, but "one weapon did not strike the intended target" because of a possible "weapons system failure." NATO said it regretted the "loss of innocent civilian lives."

Libyan officials said Sunday, NATO warplanes struck a residential neighborhood and killed nine people. Two children were among the dead.

This was the second recent admission of deadly error by coalition forces. On Saturday, NATO acknowledged that aircraft under its command had accidentally hit a rebel column near the oil refinery town of Brega on the frontline between the rebel-held east and the mainly government-held west on Thursday. The number of casualties in that attack were not revealed.

Elsewhere Sunday, rebels and medical officials in Libya say fighting near the rebel-held western city of Misrata has killed at least nine people and wounded more than 50 others.

The officials said forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi used heavy artillery to pummel Dafniya, just west of Misrata.

On Saturday, the coalition called Libyan government claims that alliance airstrikes are targeting civilians "outrageous." Spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said it is Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and his forces who have been "systematically and brutally attacking" the Libyan people

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Don't know if Gaddafi is dead or alive: Nato

A Libyan boy holds up a Kingdom of Libya flag at a checkpoint after crossing from Libya into Tunisia at the border crossing in Dehiba May 7, 2011.

Nato said on Tuesday it was unaware of embattled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi being dead or alive and denied its air strikes on Tripoli were aimed to kill him. "All Nato targets are military targets, which means that the targets we've been hitting are command and control bunkers," Nato spokesman Cl audio Gabellini told reporters, adding "and it happened also last night in Tripoli".

"Nato is not targeting individuals," he said via videolink from the operation's headquarters in Naples, Italy.

When asked whether Gaddafi was still still alive, the Italian Nato general said, "We don't have any evidence. We don't know what Gaddafi is doing right now."

Fresh sorties by Nato warplanes struck the Libyan capital on late Monday and on early Tuesday in some of the heaviest bombing missions in weeks. The air strikes reportedly targeted a military base and a compound used by Gaddafi.

Nato earlier rejected claims by Libya on Tuesday that the military alliance attacked the Supreme Court building in Tripoli and various civilian targets.

Since the Nato mission in Libya began March 31, its jets have conducted a total of 5,968 sorties, including more than 2,300 strike missions, the alliance said on Tuesday.

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