Nato air strikes rock Tripoli
Powerful explosions rocked Tripoli yesterday as Nato unleashed its heaviest blitz yet of the capital, while France and Britain piled pressure on Muammar Gaddafi by bringing helicopters into the Libya fray.
Top United States official Jeffrey Feltman said meanwhile that Libya's rebels are to open a representative office in the US and that Washington sees them as "credible and legitimate representatives of the Libyan people."
Libyan government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim told reporters that at least three people died and 150 were wounded in the air strikes, which he said targeted a deserted military barracks but which instead hit civilians living nearby.
An AFP journalist said the raids lasting more than half an hour began at around 1:00am when powerful blasts were heard in the sector around Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziya residence.
More than 15 strong blasts were heard in the neighbourhood, with the sound of warplanes roaring overhead.
Nato rejected the claim that the strikes had targeted a barracks and said in fact a vehicle storage facility had been struck.
In another boost to forces fighting to oust the Libyan strongman, France said it would provide attack helicopters for Nao's air campaign along with Britain, and the EU widened sanctions against Gaddafi's forces.
The helicopters, a weapon that has yet to be used by Nato in Libya, will help the Western alliance strike regime military assets hidden in urban areas while avoiding civilian casualties, French ministers said.
On Monday, Washington urged Gaddafi to leave Libya as Feltman, the US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, held talks in the rebel capital Benghazi.
Feltman told a media conference in Benghazi yesterday that the rebels' National Transitional Council had been invited to open an office in Washington.
On the issue of calls for US recognition of the NTC as the "sole legitimate interlocutor" of Libyans, Feltman noted the council was in fact already the only representative of the country in Washington.
Britain, France, Gambia, Italy and Qatar have already recognised the rebel council as their sole interlocutor in Libya.
On Monday, the European Union's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, opened an EU office in Benghazi and declared the 27-member bloc's "long-term support" to the rebels.
On the ground, there was little movement in the battle lines.
Rebel military spokesman Ahmed Omar Bani said the frontline between the rebel-held east and the mainly government-held west remained between the strategic crossroads town of Ajdabiya and the oil refinery town of Brega.
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