Nato bombs wrecked Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s office in his immense Tripoli residence yesterday, while rebels in besieged Misurata said they had pushed loyalist forces out of the city.

Heavy explosions shook central Tripoli shortly after midnight as warplanes roared over the city.

A Libyan official accompanying journalists shortly afterwards at Col. Gaddafi’s compound said 45 people were wounded, 15 seriously, in the bombing. He said he did not know whether more victims were under the rubble.

“It was an attempt to assass-inate Col. Gaddafi,” the official affirmed.

Seif al-Islam, Col. Gaddafi’s son, called the bombing “cowardly”.

“This cowardly attack on Muammar Gaddafi’s office may frighten or terrorise children but we will not abandon the battle and we are not afraid,” he said, claiming that Nato’s battle was “lost in advance”.

Nato aircraft also targeted the Bab Al-Aziziya district, where the presidential compound is located, late on Friday.

At around 3 a.m. (01:00 GMT) on Sunday, smoke was still rising from part of the building that was hit, watched by dozens of people shouting pro-Gaddafi slogans. A meeting room facing Col. Gaddafi’s office was badly damaged by the blast.

Meanwhile, a regime spokesman said that Col. Gaddafi was in a “safe place and his morale is high”.

Nato in Brussels said warplanes had targeted a communications centre. “Nato carried out a precision strike in central Tripoli last night,” a statement said. “The target was a communications headquarters that was used to coordin-ate attacks against civilians.”

In Misurata, 215 kilometres east of Tripoli, rebels made significant gains on Sunday in a key street in the besieged city, where residents have lived under a rain of shells and sniper fire for 50 days. Several rebel sources said regime forces had been pushed out of Misurata, but rockets continued to hit Libya’s third city.

“Clashes took place on the western outskirts, but the rest has been cleaned up. There may be some soldiers hiding in the city, afraid of being killed, but there are no groups of soldiers left,” one said.

British photographer Guy Martin, who was wounded last week in a mortar attack which killed two journalists, was evacuated by boat yesterday from besieged Misurata.