NATO Strikes Qaddafi CompoundBy DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
TRIPOLI, Libya — NATO warplanes struck Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s compound here early Monday and bombed a state television facility in an escalation of the air campaign to aid the rebellion against his four decades in power.
The attack on the compound was the third since air raids began in mid-March, but the strike at the television facility was the most significant broadening yet of the NATO air campaign, suggesting that nonmilitary targets would be hit in an effort to break down the instruments of Colonel Qaddafi’s broader control.
A senior Libyan government official said Monday that the strike knocked state television off the air for about half an hour.
In the port of Misurata, 130 miles east of the capital, rebels reported that a widely publicized government pullback had given way to renewed shelling by government forces outside the city. The initial withdrawal by pro-Qaddafi forces over the weekend after a nearly two-month siege had bewildered some rebels.
Also Monday, Italy, after weeks of declining to participate in direct bombing raids, said for the first time on Monday that it would begin striking select military targets in Libya.
In Tripoli, at least two large bomb blasts thundered over the capital just after midnight, and journalists escorted to the compound by government officials saw firefighters hosing down the smoldering remains of an office complex where Colonel Qaddafi works and meets visitors. The explosions sent cement and debris flying more than 50 yards. There were no signs of armaments and Libyan officials said no one was killed, although they said as many as 45 people were slightly injured by the blast.
Appearing on state television, Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, one of the Libyan leader’s sons, asserted that the attack would not shake the Libyan people. It would only scare “children,” he said, according to the official news agency.
At the compound, a small crowd of young Qaddafi supporters gathered a few hundred yards from the blast site. The so-called voluntary human shields chanted and rallied before state television and the visiting journalists. But elsewhere loyalist government officials appeared more anxious than usual about the stepped up pace of the bombing attacks, accusing the NATO allies of seeking to terrorize the Libyan people.
One official, speaking on condition of anonymity moments after the attack, said in exasperation that the strikes had gone too far and would justify terrorist counterattacks by Libyan forces in the cities of NATO countries. Other officials were already worrying aloud about the safety of their families in places like Surt, a center of support for Colonel Qaddafi that has also come under attack by NATO planes.
The attack was the third on or near the compound since the airstrikes began in mid-March. Several nights ago, two NATO missiles slammed into some kind of underground concrete bunker just outside the walls. An attack soon after the start of the air raids mangled a building described by NATO officials as a command and control center.
In Misurata, pro-Qaddafi officials said in recent days that loyalist forces had pulled back to permit a group of neighboring tribes to broker a ceasefire or continue the fight.
But rebels speaking over Internet connections on Monday said that neither a military pullback nor tribal intervention had materialized.
Mohamed, a rebel spokesman whose full name was withheld to protect his family, said his 92-year-old father and a cousin were killed along with 32 others in shelling Saturday night and eight more people died Sunday night.
“It has been a bloody two days,” he said. “There was no pull back. There was defeat and then revenge,” he added, referring to the rebels’ recent success at driving some pro-Qaddafi gunmen out of certain buildings they had controlled inside Misurata.
“We think the ‘pull back’ was actually a signal to escalate,” he said.
Italy announced its decision to participate in the raids after a telephone conversation between President Obama and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Italy did not specify which kinds of targets its planes would now hit, but said its decision would now place it “in line with allied operations.” In recent weeks, Italy had irked the United States and NATO allies by declining to participate in raids over Libya, a former colony with which it has close economic ties. In the statement, Italy said it would continue to provide NATO full use of its bases for logistical support.
Rachel Donadio contributed reporting from Rome. |
