TRIPOLI According to reports, NATO missiles have once again hit Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi’s compound early Thursday, hours after the longtime leader appeared on state television to dispel rumors that he had died.
Missiles could be heard screeching through the sky shortly after 3 a.m., followed by massive explosions that shook windows across the capital. Several sites inside Gaddafi’s expansive
residential and governmental complex appeared to have been struck--including what seemed like an underground bunker next to the ruins of the building hit by airstrikes in 1986 and preserved by Gaddafi as a monument.Moussa Ibrahim, a government spokesman, said that three people had died in the attack on the Bab al-Aziziya compound and 27 were injured. The strikes appeared to be part of a stepped-up NATO campaign in recent days that reflects better coordination with Libyan rebels and has helped the rebels make significant advances in the key city of Misurata.
Ibrahim denied that missiles had hit an underground bunker, saying that it was a sewage treatment tank, although reporters inspecting the remains could see an underground chamber stretching at least 30 feet deep that was built of reinforced concrete.
Civilians have streamed into Gaddafi’s compound every evening since the NATO campaign started in mid-March, serving as human shields. Some civilians could be seen in the complex--which NATO also bombed on 20 March and 30th April. while it was being shown to foreign reporters Thursday.
“It’s an official administrative facility that doesn’t have any military applications,” Ibrahim said of the complex. “These people are civilians.”
On Wednesday night, foreign journalists were apparently roped into the civilian shield role as well, without being aware of it. Gaddafi reportedly visited the hotel where accredited foreign journalists are being housed, in order to meet with tribal leaders.
The hotel, presumably the safest place in Tripoli to avoid NATO bombs because of the number of Western journalists known to be housed there, was clearly visible in footage of his appearance. But the visit was unannounced, and government minders kept journalists at the hotel unaware of it.
The visit was broadcast on state television, and constituted the first evidence Gaddafi was alive and in the country since the April 30 bombing of his complex, in which his youngest son was killed. In footage of Wednesday night’s meeting, the Libyan leader appeared frail, wearing dark glasses and speaking slowly.
Hours after the latest missile strike, the government took journalists from the hotel to tour Gaddafi’s compound. They saw one damaged building that, according to government minders, had been also struck by bombings three weeks earlier. The minders described it as an administrative building.
