@AbdulHamidAhmadAbdul Hamid Ahmad
Wave of loud blasts rock Libyan capital Tripoli: bit.ly/pSVwGg
TRIPOLI: A wave of blasts rocked Tripoli early Saturday, including the area housing Moamer Kadhafi's complex, as his regime denied rebels attacked Libya's capital and wounded a top security official. At least seven powerful explosions were heard around 2:20 am (0020 GMT), an AFP journalist reported, as state television quoted
a military official as saying NATO warplanes "are currently bombing civilian sites in the capital Tripoli." The raid is yet to be confirmed by NATO-led forces which have been carrying out air strikes against Kadhafi's war machine since late March in a bid to halt a crackdown on civilians. It came after rebel forces said they lost 16 fighters east of Tripoli on Friday but that they infiltrated the capital and attacked a regime command post where a son of the strongman was among officials targetted. The rebel forces, who have been fighting to oust Kadhafi for more than five months, said the assault "seriously injured" a high-ranking member of Kadhafi's security forces. "Yesterday (Thursday) in Tripoli, there was an attack on an operations centre of top regime officials, including Seif al-Islam Kadhafi,"
National Transitional Council vice president Ali Essawy said after a meeting in Rome with Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini. "One person was left seriously injured," he said, identifying the person as a high-ranking security official. Frattini said the "rocket attack against an operations centre" probably in a Tripoli hotel was aimed at "top officials ... including Kadhafi's son Seif, and the head of the secret service, Abdullah al-Senussi." On Thursday, unconfirmed rumours swirled that rebels in Tripoli had tried to assassinate senior regime members that day.
