Botched NATO Airstrike Deaths Nearly Double: 15 Civilians Killed in Libya

NATO has admitted responsibility for a botched airstrike near Tripoli this weekend that killed as many as 15 civilians, according to the BBC, not the 8 initially reported yesterday.

A spokesman for NATO stated that the airstrike intended to hit a military site, but some ordnance missed the target and hit a civilian home instead.

Lieutenant-General Charles Bouchard, commander of NATO's operations over Libya said:

NATO regrets the loss of innocent civilian lives and takes great care in conducting strikes against a regime determined to use violence against its own citizens. Although we are still determining the specifics of this event, indications are that a weapons system failure may have caused this incident.

Acting under a U.N. mandate to protect civilians, NATO has been bombing Libya for the past 11 weeks. This is the first incident, according to the LA Times, for which NATO has accepted responsibility for civilian deaths.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration is facing a growing bipartisan coalition claiming that the Libyan intervention is in violation of the War Powers Act.

The Obama administration is still claiming that the Libya campaign does not merit any congressional authorization because of its limited scope. A few more 'weapons system failure(s)' and this semantic dodge may soon become untenable.

If we are not at war with Libya, we certainly have a strange way of showing it. Watch the report, below, for more: