Nato air strikes hit Muammar Gadafy compound early today, hours after the Libyan leader was shown on television for the first time since another aerial attack killed his son nearly two weeks ago.
Libyan officials who showed reporters around the scene of the air strike, at Col Gadafy's Bab al-Aziziyah compound, said three people were killed and 25 wounded.
The corner of a two-storey building was blown away, leaving fragments of concrete on the street below, and deep craters were left in two other locations around the compound, which has been targeted several times since Nato began its campaign.
Government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim told reporters the strikes hit near a spot where dozens of Libyans come every night, some with families, to shout slogans in support of Col Gadafy. There was no immediate comment from Nato.
"The Nato alliance is completely bereft of morality," Ibrahim said. "No one has the right to say to the people of Libya move away from the cities so we can bombard you." "This is our country. We are proud of it. We will continue to be a fighting nation," he said.
Earlier, Col Gadafy had drawn a line under nearly two weeks of speculation over his fate when Libyan television showed him meeting officials in a Tripoli hotel.
The Libyan leader had not been seen in public since an April 30th strike killed his youngest son and three grandchildren. He made his appearance today in trademark brown robe, dark sunglasses and black hat. Col Gadafy was shown greeting a group of tribal leaders who support him.
"We tell the world these are the representatives of the Libyan tribes," said Col Gadafy, pointing to the officials and naming a few of them.
"You will be victorious," an old man told Col Gadafy, referring to the three-month-old revolt in the North African country against the Libyan leader's 41 years of rule.
Four months into a revolt against his rule, Col Gadafy is still holding doggedly onto power despite weeks of Nato strikes on his military and command structures.
The conflict has now entered stalemate, with Col Gadafy in control of most of the west of the country, while the rebels are hemmed in to their stronghold in the east and a few pockets in the west.
State television reported that the North Korean embassy in Tripoli had suffered major damage in a Nato strike. China's state-run Xinhua news agency cited an unidentified North Korean diplomat as saying the windows in an embassy building had been shattered and some cars destroyed.
"We have seen these reports. We cannot verify them independently," a Nato official said.
A delegation from the rebel Transitional National Council will visit the White House for the first time tomorrow, the White House said today.
The group, led by Mahmoud Jebril, head of the council's executive bureau, will meet President Barack Obama's national security adviser, Tom Donilon, and other senior administration officials.
Reuters