— NATO airstrikes targeted the center of Moammar Gaddafi’s seat of power early Monday, unleashing guided bombs that destroyed a multistory library and office in his compound and badly damaged a reception hall for visiting dignitaries.
A security official said four people were slightly hurt. Dust was still rising from the rubble when reporters arrived at the scene after midnight.
Gaddafi’s whereabouts at the time of the attack on his sprawling Bab al-Aziziya compound were unclear. He has made infrequent public appearances in Tripoli during the fighting that broke out in February between his forces and rebel groups.
The strike on the compound — a military base where Gaddafi maintains an official residence — was a sign of mounting pressure on the regime. While NATO said the site was targeted as a military command post, it also delivered a strong message to the embattled leader that the alliance is widening its range of targets.
While rebels control most of eastern Libya, Gaddafi is trying to keep control of the western half, which includes the capital of Tripoli. In recent days, opposition forces in western Libya drove Gaddafi’s troops out of the besieged rebel city of Misrata and also took control of a border crossing with Tunisia.
Gaddafi’s troops on the outskirts of Misrata unleashed more shells into the city Monday following an especially bloody weekend that left at least 32 dead and dozens wounded. The latest shelling hit a residential area and killed 10 people, including five members of one family, according to a doctor in Misrata who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared government retaliation.
The battle for Misrata, which has claimed hundreds of lives in the past two months, has become the focal point of the armed rebellion against Gaddafi since fighting elsewhere is deadlocked.
Video of Misrata civilians being killed and wounded by Gaddafi’s heavy weapons, including Grad rockets and tank shells, have spurred calls for more forceful international intervention to stop the bloodshed.
In Brussels, a NATO spokesman said the alliance is increasingly targeting facilities linked to Gaddafi’s regime. “We have moved on to those command and control facilities that are used to coordinate such attacks by regime forces,” the spokesman said of the strike on Bab al-Aziziya, which was hit last month, early in the NATO air campaign. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military briefing regulations.
Gaddafi’s son, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, struck a tone of defiance. He claimed Gaddafi has “millions of Libyans with him” and said NATO’s mission was doomed to fail. “In history, no country has achieved victory with spies and traitors and collaborators. … NATO, you are the losers,” he was quoted as saying by the state news agency JANA.
Hadid reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Ben Hubbard in Benghazi, Libya, Sebastian Abbot in Ajdabiya, Libya, Hadeel al-Shalchi in Cairo and Slobodan Lekic in Brussels contributed to this story.
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