Italy: Civilian Deaths put NATO Credibility at Risk

Italy's foreign minister warned Monday that NATO's accidental killing of civilians in the Libyan air war was endangering the alliance's credibility.

"NATO's credibility is at risk," Franco Frattini told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Luxembourg.

"We cannot run the risk of killing civilians. This is not good at all," he said a day after NATO for the first time acknowledged the accidental killing of civilians in a Tripoli bombing.

NATO blamed the incident on an apparent "weapons system failure" that caused a bomb to hit a residential neighborhood in the Libyan capital during an operation against a military missile site early Sunday.

Frattini said NATO needed to win the propaganda war against Moammar Gadhafi's regime.

"NATO's shortcomings in communication is a problem, because we must counter the (Libyan regime's) media propaganda," he said. "It is something NATO must think about."

The Libyan government lodged fresh accusations against NATO on Monday, saying a new air strike in the Tripoli suburb of Sorman had killed 15 people, including three children.

The alliance initially denied conducting an air raid in Sorman, but later issued a statement admitting that warplanes struck a "high-level" command and control facility used by the regime to direct attacks on civilians.

NATO planes have conducted almost 12,000 sorties over the past three months under a U.N. mandate to protect civilians from the Gadhafi regime.