Nato warplanes blitzed a string of military targets in Tripoli yesterday, an official said, as embattled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi blamed a “colonial plot” for the conflict engulfing his country.

“In Tripoli there were two command and control nodes, two surface-to-air missile launchers and one anti-aircraft gun (hit),” the Nato official said from the mission’s headquarters in Naples, Italy.

An AFP reporter said two blasts occurred at 00:50 am in the area housing Colonel Gaddafi’s residence in the heart of the capital, followed by others in the city’s eastern and southeastern suburbs.

A column of smoke was seen over Col Gaddafi’s residential complex, which had been targeted by Nato warplanes on Saturday, when the transatlantic military alliance confirmed seven strikes and said they hit a military command node.

Col Gaddafi meanwhile late on Saturday said in an audio message broadcast on state television that the unrest that has swept his country since a popular uprising erupted mid-February was a “colonial plot.” He did not elaborate.

He also denied accusations by international rights groups of a brutal suppression of dissent and allegations that his regime had killed thousands of protesters.

“They lie to you and say, ‘Libya kills its people with bullets, that is why we have come to protect civilians’,” Col Gaddafi said, referring to the Nato air campaign which was mandated by the United Nations with the aim of protecting civilians in Libya.

“Only eight people have been killed and an inquiry is under way to determine who killed them. There are no protests and no gunfire. Show us where the thousands of people (reportedly killed) are buried,” Col Gaddafi said.

He also heaped praise on toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, describing him as “poor and modest” and saying he deserved honour rather than humiliation.

“I know Hosni Mubarak, a poor and modest man” who loves his people, Col Gaddafi said in the address marking the anniversary of the 1952 coup in Egypt led by Gamal Abdel Nasser against the monarchy.

“Instead of being humiliated, Hosni Mubarak should be honoured.”

The latest Nato strikes came after rebel forces said they had lost 16 fighters east of Tripoli and had infiltrated the capital and attacked a regime command post where a son of the strongman was among officials targeted.

The rebels, who have been fighting to oust Col Gaddafi for more than five months, said the assault “seriously injured” a high-ranking member of Col Gaddafi’s security forces.

On Thursday, “there was an attack on an operations centre of top regime officials, including Seif al-Islam Gaddafi,” National Transitional Council vice president Ali Essawy said after meeting Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini in Rome.

He said one person was “seriously injured,” identifying him as a high-ranking security official.

Mr Frattini said the “rocket attack against an operations centre” probably in a Tripoli hotel was aimed at “top officials... including Gaddafi’s son Seif, and the head of the secret service, Abdullah al-Senussi.”

On Thursday, unconfirmed rumours swirled that rebels in Tripoli had tried to assassinate senior regime members that day.

Libyan officials denied the attack occurred and denounced as “criminal and unjustified” what they said were Nato raids that killed six guards at a pipeline factory south of an oil plant in the eastern town of Brega.

“There was no attack,” government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim told reporters of the rebels’ claims that they had attacked a Tripoli command post.