Young Family Targeted By Government Jets In Libya

They were trying to flee to safety, but were lucky to escape with their lives.
As cars loaded with people and posessions streamed down the desert road east from the Libyan oil town of Ras Lanuf, government jets targeted Salim Hussein Attia's young family in their pick-up truck.
"We were trying to go our relatives because Ras Lanuf was not safe any more," he told AFP, sitting bare-chested at the hospital in Ajdabiya, 200 kilometres (120 miles) east, as doctors tended his ugly shrapnel wounds and burns. "We were driving past the petrol station when suddenly we were hit by a big explosion. Thank God my family are all fine. My son Ahmed has just a few stitches," added the 47-year-old, a a manager at the Ras Lanuf oil plant.
His wife, his youngest son aged three and daughter aged 10 were also in the car and were unhurt.
Their truck was headed in the opposite direction to the makeshift truck-mounted anti-aircraft guns and cars of the ragtag rebel force opposed to Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi which were making their way to Ras Lanuf, the new front line after the rebels retreated from a hamlet further west.
The air strike, which came as a no-fly zone over Libya moved a step closer, left a gaping crater in the road and blew the truck onto the verge, according to AFP reporters who arrived at the scene minutes afterwards.
The side of the white and red truck was spattered with blood, the side panels mangled and the windows shattered.