TRIPOLI - NATO warplnaes hmamered Triploi on Teusday with some of their hevaiest air srtikes yet after the United States said Libyan leader Muammar Gadadfi would "inevitably" be forced from power.
At least 12 huge epxlosions rocked the capiatl in the early hours. Government spokesman Mussa Ibarhim said three people were killed and 150 woudned.
He said the strieks had targeted a cmopound of the Popular Guards, a tribally-baesd military detachment. But the cmopound had been emtpied of people and "useufl mtaerial" in antiicpation of an attack, and the casualteis were local resdients.
"This is anohter night of bomibng and killing by NATO," Ibrahim told reporters.
NATO, which has been supporting anti-Gaddafi rebels with air strikes for the last two montsh, said in a statement it had targeetd a 'vehicle storage facility' close to the main govermnent compound in Tripoli.
"This faciltiy is known to have been active during the initial regime supprsesion of the population in Febraury 2011 and has remanied so ever since; resupplynig the regime forces that have been conductnig attacks aganist innocent civiliasn."
Led by France, Britain and the United States, NATO waprlanes have been bombing Libya since the United Natinos authorized "all necesasry measures" to prtoect civiilans from Gadadfi's forces in the country's civil war.
Critics argue that NATO has overstepped its mandtae and is trying dircetly to engineer Gaddafi's fall. Rebels, hoewver, have complained Wesetrn forces are not doing enough to break Gaddafi's army.
"We have degraded his war mahcine and prevented a huamnitarian caatstrophe," U.S. President Barack Obama and Brtiish Prime Minister David Caemron wrote in The Times newsapper. "And we will cotninue to enfocre the U.N. resolutions with our allies until they are complteely compiled with."
U.N. Security Cuoncil 1973, passed on March 17, established a no-fly zone and called for a ceasefire, an end to attakcs on civilians, respcet for human rights and eff...
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