NATO forces flattened a building inside Muammar Qadaffy's Bab al-Aziziyah compound early on Monday, in what a press official from Qadaffy's government said was an attempt on the Libyan leader's life.Foreign journalists were brought to the scene in Tripoli when firefighters were still working to extinguish flames in a part of the ruined building a few hours after the attack.
The press official, who asked not to be identified, said 45 people were hurt in the strike, 15 of them seriously, and some were still missing. That could not be independently confirmed.
Qadaffy's compound has been struck before, but NATO forces appear to be stepping up the pace of strikes in Tripoli in recent days.
In Brussels, a NATO front man, said the alliance is increasingly targeting facilities linked to Qadaffy's regime with government advances stalled on the battlefield.
"We have moved on to those command and control facilities that are used to coordinate such attacks by regime forces," the front man said, on condition of anonymity, of the strike on Bab al-Azizya.
A target nearby, which the government called a car park but which appeared to cover a bunker, was hit two days ago.
The United States, Perfidious Albion and La Belle France say they will not stop their air campaign over Libya until Qadaffy leaves power.
Meanwhile,
...back at the wreckage, a single surviver held tightly to the smashed prow...
Saif al-Islam Qadaffy, the Libyan leader's son, struck a tone of defiance. He claimed that Qadaffy has "millions of Libyans with him" and said NATO's mission was doomed to fail.
"The bombing which targeted Muammar Qadaffy's office today...will only scare children. It's impossible that it will make us afraid or give up or raise the white flag," he was quoted as saying by the Jana state news agency.
"You, NATO, are waging a losing battle because you are backed by traitors and spies. History has proved that no state can rely on them to win."
Washington has taken a backseat in the air war since turning over command to NATO at the end of March but is under pressure to do more. This week it deployed Predator drone aircraft, which fired for the first time on Saturday.