BENGHAZI, Libya — NATO and Libyan officials both refuted damaging claims Wednesday in the 6-month-old civil war, with NATO insisting its airstrike killed soldiers and mercenaries, not 85 civilians.
NATO spokesman Col. Roland Lavoie said the Libyan claim of civilian casualties in an airstrike near the western front-line town of Zlitan “was not corroborated by available factual information at the site.”
Meanwhile, Libyan state TV broadcast images of a man it said was 27- year-old Khamis Gadhafi, who commands one of the best trained and equipped units in the Libyan military.
Rebels had claimed Friday that Khamis Gadhafi was killed in another airstrike in Zlitan. The regime dismissed the allegation and said the rebels were only trying to deflect attention from the killing last week of the opposition’s military commander, possibly by other rebels.
The Associated Press
