By DPA,
Paris/Cairo/Tripoli: The Libyan opposition alleged Muammar Gaddafi’s forces continued to attack a number of cities Monday, despite coalition strikes aimed at imposing a UN-mandated no-fly zone over Libya.
In Tripoli, a missile reportedly hit Gaddafi’s residential compound, with opposition sources reporting the sound of explosions followed by smoke rising from the area of Bab al-Aziziya, a Gaddafi stronghold.
Libyan government officials said there were no casualties from the compound bombing. Gaddafi’s whereabouts were not known.
But one of Gaddafi’s sons, Khamis, was reportedly injured in an attack on Bab al-Aziziya compound, with some opposition groups claiming he died of burn wounds sustained during the attack.
French government spokesman Francois Baroin said Monday that two days of French strikes, which are part of Operation Odyssey Dawn to implement UN resolution 1973, had “stopped Gaddafi in the development of massacring civilians”.
However, the National Conference of the Libyan Opposition (NCLO) said Gaddafi’s forces shelled the city of Alzentan, about 160 km southwest of Tripoli. The government loyalists used tanks and missiles, destroying residential buildings, said the NCLO.
Meanwhile, sources from the northern city of Misurata, just west of the capital Tripoli, said Gaddafi’s forces were encircling the city and cutting water supplies, reported broadcaster Al Arabiya.
But the opposition Libyan Youth Movement said on their Twitter account that the opposition’s forces were fighting back after serious attacks on Misurata’s rebels.
Gaddafi had earlier called on his supporters to launch a peaceful march on the rebel-held city of Benghazi as a building in his residential compound was destroyed by an apparent missile strike, news reports said.
Gaddafi met with a committee to organise a march of thousands of civilian supporters on Benghazi, the largest city controlled by rebels seeking to unseat him, state media Jana reported early Monday.
The planned “green march” would consist of unarmed civilians and include parliamentarians “holding olive branches,” the Jana report said. They would be escorted by some armed civilians because Benghazi’s occupiers were armed, it said.
French fighter jets and US and British ships began bombing Libyan military targets Saturday evening.
Spain, Belgium and Canada have contributed fighter jets and other weapons to the Libyan mission, while Italian and Danish fighter jets have also been participating in enforcing the no-fly zone.
The Qatari air force will be participating in the enforcement of the UN-mandated no-fly zone over Libya, Qatari media reported Monday.
This would make the Gulf state the first Arab country to actively participate in the mission.