Libya: NATO's Tripoli Attack An Assassination Attempt
Libya's government branded a NATO airstrike on Moammar Gadhafi's Tripoli compound Monday an assassination attempt, though Libyan officials said the reclusive strongman was not there at the time of the attack.
At least two guided bombs struck the sprawling Bab al-Azizya compound, destroying a library and damaging a reception hall for visiting dignitaries. A security official at the scene told The Associated Press that four people were lightly hurt, but other reports said several were wounded.
NPR's Peter Kenyon, reporting from the de facto rebel capital of Benghazi, said government officials in Tripoli branded the strike an attempt to take out Gadhafi, but NATO insists its mission is only to degrade the regime's ability to attack civilians.
Gadhafi was not at the compound at the time of the bombardment, according to government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim. Ibrahim said three people had been killed and 45 were wounded, 15 of them seriously, at the site of the attack.
Bill Van Auken: US, NATO attempt assassination of Gaddafi - With the attack Monday morning on the Bab al-Azizyah complex in Tripoli, the US-NATO war on Libya has entered a criminal new phase that incorporates the policy of state-organized assassination. This was the third such attack on the complex where Libya’s Colonel Muammar Gaddafi lives and works. The compound was hit by a cruise missile fired from a British submarine on March 20, the second day of the US-NATO assault, and again on April 23, when warplanes struck a parking lot just outside of Bab al-Azizyah that reportedly was above an underground bunker. With each strike, the objective is ever more naked: the murder of Gaddafi and members of his family.