Libyans bury 9 killed in NATO strike

TRIPOLI, Libya -- Mourners vowed revenge and rattled off heavy gunfire in a Tripoli cemetery Saturday as they buried nine men they said were Muslim clerics and medics killed in a NATO airstrike in mostly rebel-held eastern Libya.

The Libyan government gave one account of why the men had traveled from the capital to the eastern front; a cleric at the funeral who said he witnessed the attack in the oil town of Brega gave a different version.

And the government, apparently hoping to turn the funeral into an outpouring of support for Moammar Gadhafi, announced the time and place on state TV and over text messages. Only a few hundred men showed up, however, and few appeared to be family or friends of the dead. At least a dozen were soldiers.

NATO has been intensifying airstrikes against Gadhafi's troops in several areas of Libya in a bid to weaken his brutal crackdown against a rebel uprising. Libya's government has been eager to counter NATO's message that its mission's central aim is to protect civilians.

The sound of another apparent NATO airstrike was heard in Tripoli last night. Libyan state TV said it targeted a site at the Bab al-Aziziya military base that includes Gadhafi's residence.

A NATO official in Naples said warplanes targeted a military command and control site and that she was "aware of reports" of civilian deaths in the Brega attack, but "we cannot independently verify that."

Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said the men killed early Friday were clerics who met in the port town of Brega, which has been fought over throughout the three-month conflict, to pray for peace. Ibrahim said dozens of clerics hoped to head to the rebel-held eastern part of Libya to seek an end to the war. He and other government spokespeople said 11 were killed. He said 50 people also were wounded, including five in critical condition.