Libya says NATO strike killed civilians

LIBYAN officials said yesterday a NATO strike had hit a civilian house in the capital and killed several residents, an allegation which, if confirmed, could sow new doubts inside the alliance about its mission in Libya.

A NATO spokesman said the alliance was taking the reports of civilian casualties very seriously and it would try to establish if it was a NATO bomb which had killed the residents.

On another front in the four-month-old battle to force out Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, a doctor in the city of Misrata said eight rebel fighters had been killed and 36 wounded in fighting with government troops.