NATO heightens pressure on Gaddafi to quit

NATO heightens pressure on Gaddafi to quit

NATO says it has destroyed the guard towers at Muammar Gaddafi's compound in Tripoli, heightening pressure on the Libyan leader to quit.

Chief British military spokesman, Major General John Lorimer, said in a statement that in a rare daytime air strike, RAF Typhoons, along with other NATO aircraft, last night used precision-guided weapons to bring down guard towers along the walls of Colonel Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziyah complex in the centre of Tripoli.

He said the action sent a powerful message to the regime's leadership and to those involved in delivering Colonel Gaddafi's attacks on civilians that they were no longer hidden away from the Libyan people behind high walls.

"The massive compound has not just been his home, but is also a major military barracks and headquarters, and lies at the heart of his network of secret police and intelligence agencies," Lorimer said.

"Previous NATO attacks have hit command and control and other military facilities within the complex."

NATO followed its fifth straight night of attacks with a daytime strike that sent smoke funnelling skywards from the area of the Gaddafi compound. A big boom shook Tripoli at about 0800 GMT but it was unclear if it was caused by a bomb or missile.

A NATO military spokesman said the daylight raid targeted "a vehicle storage compound 600 to 800 metres to the east of Gaddafi's so called tent private area. It is not part of the main Gaddafi complex".

Following the Friday night strikes, the Libyan state broadcaster said NATO raids also caused "human and material" damage near Mizda, to the south.

At the G8 summit in France, Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev called for Gaddafi’s exit, saying "the world community does not see him as the leader of Libya," Medvedev told reporters at the summit, adding that he was sending an envoy to Libya to begin talks.”

It was an unexpected change in tone from Moscow, which has previously criticised the 10-week bombing of Libya.

NATO intervened under a United Nations mandate to protect civilians from Gaddafi's forces, but has effectively placed itself on the side of rebels trying to topple him in a deadlocked civil war.

Libya battle

A rebel spokesman in Misrata, Abdelsalam, reported a quieter situation on Saturday

"When Gaddafi's forces launch a failed attack they usually take two to three days to recover," he said.

Fighting raged 25 kilometres east of Misrata, with three rebels killed and five wounded, said Fathi Bashaga, a member of military council in Misrata. He said rebels captured two soldiers.

Gaddafi's forces have stepped up their attacks on Zintan, part of a chain of mountain settlements near Libya's border with Tunisia, where rebels have been holding off assaults for months.

On Saturday, Juma Ibrahim, a rebel spokesman in Zintan, said the western town of Yafran remained under Gaddafi loyalist control but added that insurgents had attacked pro-Gaddafi forces in al-Kiklah, 15 km (nine miles) east of Yafran.

REUTERS/Williams