Nato bombs rock Tripoli

A Nato bombing blitz, which the alliance insisted was not aimed at Muammar Gaddafi, rocked Tripoli yesterday, as rebels in besieged Misurata claimed to be pushing back the Libyan strongman’s forces.

The United Nations, meanwhile, said the offensive launched by Col Gaddafi’s forces was paralysing the oil-rich nation and causing the population to suffer widespread shortages of essential goods.

Jets screamed in low over the capital in the early hours, carrying out an unusually heavy bombardment that lasted roughly three hours, an AFP correspondent said.

The blasts came after Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said time was running out for Col Gaddafi.

He said Col Gaddafi “should realise sooner rather than later that there’s no future for him or his regime.”

Witnesses said the latest Nato-led air bombardment hit targets near Col Gaddafi’s compound, but the mission’s chief operations officer, Brigadier General Claudio Gabellini, denied that aim had been to take out the Libyan leader.

“All Nato targets are military targets, which means that the targets we’ve been hitting, and it happened also last night in Tripoli, are command and control bunkers,” Brig. Gen. Gabellini told reporters.

“Nato is not targeting individuals,” he said via videolink from his headquarters in Naples, Italy.

Asked whether Col Gaddafi was still alive, the Italian general said: “We don’t have any evidence. We don’t know what Gaddafi is doing right now.”

He added later: “To tell you the truth, we are not really interested in what he’s doing. Our mandate is to protect civilians from attacks or from the threats of attacks, so we are not looking after individuals.”

Col Gaddafi had escaped a similar Nato bombing blitz on May 1 in Tripoli, which killed his second youngest son, Seif al-Arab, and three of his grandchildren.

The rebels said they had driven Col Gaddafi’s forces back from around Misurata, which has been under loyalist siege for some two months, and were poised to make another thrust.

After heavy clashes, the rebels controlled a stretch of coastal road west of Misurata, their last major stronghold in the west, prompting thousands to flee.

An AFP correspondent said the rebels had forced government troops about 15 kilometres from Misurata, advancing to Dafnia, and were readying to move on Zliten, the next major town on the road to Tripoli.

Ahmad Hassan, a rebel spokesman in Misurata, said the insurgents had also “liberated” areas south and east of the city, killing many Gaddafi troops and seizing a large amount of weapons. Eighteen rebels and civilians were wounded.

The rebel claims could not be immediately verified. Brig. Gen. Gabellini said Nato had struck more than 30 military targets in and around Misurata since May 2, including a dozen main battle tanks, three rocket-launcher systems, three self-propelled artillery pieces and 15 ammunition storage sites.

There has also been deadly fighting in recent days on the frontline between the rebel-held east and the mainly government-held west, medics said.

The head of the rebel ambulance service, Doctor Ahmed al-Ignashi, said six opposition fighters were killed and 10 wounded on Monday in heavy exchanges 30 kilometres west of the strategic crossroads town of Ajdabiya.

Meanwhile, the UN refugee agency appealed to all shipping in the Mediterranean to treat all boats leaving Libya as being in need of assistance after consistent reports that a vessel carrying as many as 600 people had capsized last week leaving many dead.

The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said the number of flimsy and overloaded boats carrying people fleeing Libya was increasing and recent incidents raised fears about their safety.