NATO on Tuesday said overnight air strikes near the city of Zliten in western Libya were "legitimate" and that it had no evidence of Tripoli claims that the bombs killed 85 villagers. "We do not have evidence of civilian casualties at this stage," the NATO spokesman for the alliance's Libya campaign, Colonel Roland Lavoie,
said
at a video conference held at its Naples headquarters. Raids by NATO planes south of Zliten were against "a legitimate target", two former farms used for military purposes by troops loyal to Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi, he said. "This was a military facility clearly," he added. "NATO takes extreme precaution not to harm innocent civilians living or working nearby." In Libya, government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim said the strikes killed 85 villagers near Zliten in what he branded a "massacre" of civilians. The village of Majer, 10 kilometres (six miles) south of Zliten, was attacked late on Monday to "allow rebel fighters to enter" the government-held city from the south, he told reporters on a guided visit. "After the first three bombs dropped at around 11:00 pm on Monday, many residents of the area ran to the bombed houses to try to save their loved ones. Three more bombs struck," he said. Thirty-three children, 32 women and 20 men from 12 families were killed in the "massacre," said Mussa.
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