Nine civilians, including two children, are reportedly dead following a NATO airstrike in Tripoli, which according to the Libyan government struck a residential neighborhood early Sunday.
Details remain sketchy and could not be independently verified, but the Moammar Gadhafi regime is citing the incident as evidence that coalition forces are striking non-military targets.
"There was intentional and deliberate targeting of the civilian houses," said deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaim. "This is another sign of the brutality of the West."
Reporters based in the Libyan capital were rushed to a destroyed building, which appeared to have been partially under construction, and were later taken to a local hospital and shown the bodies of those said to have been killed in the strike. Foreign journalists in Tripoli are not allowed to travel and report freely and are almost always shadowed by government minders.
Foreign Minister Abdul-Ati al-Obeidi told reporters nine civilians, including two children, were killed in the explosion and that 18 others were wounded.
Civilian deaths have become a key element in the rhetoric between the Gadhafi regime and NATO since the coalition intervened in the Libyan civil war in March.
"At this point NATO is not saying what exactly happened," said CNN's David McKenzie, speaking to CTV from Tripoli. "They say they're looking into the incident but they did hint that in the past these sorts of allegations have proven to be untrue."
Late on Saturday, NATO admitted that it had mistakenly struck a column of Libyan rebel vehicles in an airstrike two days earlier and expressed regret for any casualties.
Elsewhere in Libya, there was heavy shelling late Saturday and early Sunday in the rebel stronghold of Misrata, where according to one official four were killed and 16 wounded. Rebels continue to clash with pro-government forces as they try to push west towards Tripoli.
