LIBYA: NATO air strikes hit Zlitan, west of Misrata

Record ID: 516904

  • Title: LIBYA: NATO air strikes hit Zlitan, west of Misrata
  • Date: 22nd July 2011
  • Summary: ZLITAN, LIBYA (JULY 21, 2011) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF BUILDINGS IN ZLITAN VARIOUS OF SMOKE RISING AFTER NATO AIR STRIKE MORE SMOKE VARIOUS OF SITE SAID TO HAVE BEEN DAMAGED IN AIR STRIKE MEDIA LOOKING AT SUSPECTED WEAPON CASING CAR DRIVING PAST ANOTHER SITE SAID TO HAVE BEEN DAMAGED IN AN AIR STRIKE VARIOUS OF DAMAGE TO SITE MEDIA ARRIVING AT ZLITAN HOSPITAL STAFF OUTSIDE A WARD PATIENTS IN BED (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) CASUALTY, MILAD, SAYING "It was a civilian site... the whole family passed away, they didn't die after the first air strike but died after the second one, it was a two storey building." MEDIA IN THE HOSPITAL WARD
  • Embargoed: 6th August 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Libya
  • Country: Libya
  • Topics: Conflict,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVACDA0CHUOVO2O50PITDJUIJQ90
  • Story Text: Libyan government shows foreign media sites they say are civilian targets struck by a number of NATO air strikes in Zlitan.
    Foreign media in Libya on Thursday (July 21) were shown what the government said were the sites of a number of NATO air strikes on civilian targets.
    Journalists were taken to Zlitan, 50 kilometres west of the embattled town of Misrata, while air strikes were ongoing. A number of loud explosions could be heard from several miles away and smoke billowed on the horizon.
    The media were later taken to what appeared to be the site of a construction company which had suffered extensive damage. A spokesman said the site belonged to a civilian, commercial concern and had no military connections.
    A second target destroyed in an air strike was also visited. The spokesman said the three storey building had been a Turkish owned transport company.
    In Zlitan Hospital male patients in a general ward told reporters they had been injured in a separate strike on Zlitan that struck a civilian neighbourhood, killing at least one family and injuring others.
    "It was a civilian site," said Milad, a casualty with a back injury from his hospital bed, "the whole family passed away, they didn't die after the first air strike but died after the second one."
    The authenticity of his statement and the provided details of sites damaged in air strike could not be confirmed.
    Zlitan lies just west of Libya's front line near the oil town of Brega, one of the last strongholds of Gaddafi's forces, which has been deadlocked for weeks, without any conclusive fighting.
    A rebel military spokesman, said he expected a breakthrough in Brega and Zlitan within days, after rebels advanced to the edge of the town.
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