NATO launches some its heaviest air strikes yet as the US warns time is against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
By REUTERSinjured Libyans in hospital_311 reuters(photo credit: REUTERS)
NATO on Monday launched some its heaviest air strikes yet on Tripoli.Huge explosions rocked the Libyan capital in an hour of intense bombing.Some reports suggested a compound of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was one of the targets.Libya's government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim said the target was a compound of the Popular Guards which had been evacuated in advance.Western journalists, whose movements are tightly controlled by Libyan authorities, were shown wounded people in hospitals.Ibrahim said the casualties being treated there lived near the compound.His comments could not be independently confirmed by Reuters."You understand of course the chaos of the whole situation because dozens of people have been injured. We have three martyrs so far. The injured have been taken to two different hospitals. This is one of them," said Ibrahim.A day earlier in Benghazi, Libya's rebels laid to rest one of their fighters.His comrades say 21-year-old Ahmed Lagha was hit by a mortar shell on Sunday.
"He had asked to die a martyr three days before he was killed, so for three days he had asked to become a martyr and he died a hero," Younis Almughaidi, comrade of dead rebel fighter, said.US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday time was working against Libya's leader who would "inevitably" leave.
