The death of Libyan civilians in a NATO air strike was an "unfortunate accident" that took place when celebratory gunfire by revolutionists prompted warplanes to act in self-defence

The death of Libyan civilians in a NATO air strike was an "unfortunate accident" that took place when celebratory gunfire by revolutionists prompted warplanes to act in self-defence, the alliance claimed Tuesday.
  
Brigadier General Mark van Uhm said NATO did not carry out a formal investigation into last week's incident but that its "assessment" of what happened "has closed." "We have looked into the incident and with all that we know today our assessment is that it has been an unfortunate accident," van Uhm, NATO's chief of allied operations, told a news briefing. Van Uhm refused to say what type of aircraft were involved in the incident, or what country they were from.

The air raid on Friday martyred 13 people, four of them civilians, some 15 kilometres east of the battleground Libyan oil town of Brega, a revolutionist official said last week.

NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu stressed that alliance forces have the right to defend themselves in any operation. "We take any reports of civilian casualties very seriously, but clearly if somebody fires on our aircraft, those aircraft have the right to fire, it is their right of self defence," she said.