NATO officials announced today that they “strongly deny” the accusation that air strikes against the suburb of Sorman killed at least 15 civilians in Libya today, saying they hadn’t launched any strikes in Sorman.
Libyan officials said that the attack against Sorman killed three children and 12 other civilians, hitting the home of a Revolution Command Council member and two adjacent houses. Journalists were shown the rubble of the homes.
The denial comes just one day after NATO officials admitted to another attack in Tripoli, which killed at least nine civilians including two small children. Officials blamed that attack on a “weapons system failure.”
Civilian deaths have been an extremely controversial aspect of NATO’s war against Libya, which was nominally started to “protect civilians.” Yesterday’s admission was the first time NATO actually conceded they had killed civilians, though a number of previous incidents have been independently confirmed, including by top Catholic Church officials in the capital.
