Nato Denies Targeting Civilians In Libya Raid

Nato is investigating claims by the Libyan government that it was responsible for bombing a residential area in Tripoli, killing up to nine civilians.

Unconfirmed reports said a further 18 were injured in an air strike in the east of the capital in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Reporters were taken by Libyan government officials to a residential area in the Arada neighbourhood of Tripoli and saw a body pulled out of the rubble of a destroyed building.

Nato has denied directly targeting the site and has repeatedly insisted it tries to avoid killing civilians.

However, it confirmed it had carried out a deliberate air strike on a missile site run by troops loyal to Col Gaddafi and said: "Nato would be sorry if the review of this incident did indicate that it was caused by a Nato weapon."

Such confirmation would be an embarrassment for the military campaign in Libya, where Nato is meant to be enforcing a UN resolution to prevent Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's troops from attacking his own people.

Libya's deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaim told reporters at the site: "There was intentional and deliberate targeting of the civilian houses.

"This is another sign of the brutality of the West."

There were heaps of rubble and chunks of shattered concrete at the scene of the alleged raid, which a large crowd of what appeared to be local residents were helping to clear.

At a local hospital, reporters were shown three bodies, including a child, which government officials said were people killed in the air strike.

One of the bodies was covered with debris and dust and reporters were also shown a wounded child.

"Basically, this is another night of murder, terror and horror in Tripoli caused by Nato ," government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told reporters at the hospital.

Five families were living in the building which was hit, he said.

It has not been verified whether the three bodies had come from the destroyed building in Arada, a neighbourhood in the Souq al Juma district, which is known for anti-Gaddafi sentiment.

One man told reporters at the scene that anti-aircraft guns were located nearby, fuelling suspicions that the strike may have been aimed close to the impact zone.

Two weeks ago, Libyan government officials were accused by a hospital worker of falsely labelling a child hurt in a car crash as the victim of a Nato attack.

The incident occurred just over 24 hours after the Libyan government accused Nato of specifically targeting civilians in its campaign to aid rebels in their war against the regime of Col Gaddafi .

The dictator has recently reiterated his determination not to be pushed from power.

Rebels in the city of Misratah claim to have taken heavy casualties after coming under heavy artillery fire from pro-Gaddafi forces on Sunday.

Four rebels were killed and 18 wounded, according to a doctor at a field hospital near the front line in Dafniyah, an area just west of Misratah.

After four months of civil war, the rebels control much of the east of Libya, the area around the western port city of Misratah and much of the western mountain region stretching to the border with Tunisia.

Meanwhile, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander has told Sky's Murnaghan show he did not have precise figures for the true cost of the Libyan campaign - and that it could run "into the hundreds of millions".

He said the campaign was currently costing the taxpayer "tens of millions" but spending would rise as operations continued.