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Summary Foreign media in Libya were shown the sites of a number of NATO air strikes on civilian targets.
The Libyan government showed foreign journalists a destroyed flu clinic and food warehouses it said had been hit earlier in the day by NATO airstrikes, killing eight people.The attacks took place in the government-held town of Zlitan, 90 miles east of the capital Tripoli and not far from the countrys front line where rebels are battling Moammar Gadhafis forces.NATO denied, however, that it had targeted civilians and said it had only hit a number of military objectives in the area.A rebel uprising that began in February against longtime Libyan leader Gadhafi escalated into a full-fledged civil war that threatens to split the country. The fighting has degenerated into a stalemate for months, despite a UN-mandated NATO air campaign targeting government forces in order to protect civilians.Even as government minders took journalists to what they described as sites of the latest NATO attacks, the distant rumblings of artillery and explosions could be heard to the east of Zlitan.In late afternoon, on the eastern edge of the city, journalists witnessed two airstrikes, with their distinctive mushroom cloud explosions.The Libyan government has repeatedly claimed NATOs attacks kill civilians and state television is filled with images of dead children supposedly killed in these operations.Journalists based in Tripoli have heard NATO airstrikes almost every night for the past week, included apparent attacks on Gaddafis nearby compound. They have not been taken to any bombing sites in Tripoli, however, suggesting NATOs gunners are hitting military targets, at least in the capital.
