TRIPOLI - Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's office in his immense Tripoli residence was destroyed in a NATO airstrike early April 25, while loud explosions were heard in several districts of the capital as warplanes roared overhead.
A Libyan official accompanying journalists at Gadhafi's compound said 45 people were wounded, 15 seriously, in the bombing. He added that he did not know whether there were victims under the rubble.
"It was an attempt to assassinate Colonel Gadhafi," he said.
Seif Al-Islam, Gadhafi's son, described the bombing as "cowardly."
"This cowardly attack on Moammar Gadhafi's office may frighten or terrorize children, but we will not abandon the battle and we are not afraid," he said, claiming that NATO's battle was "lost in advance."
At about 3 a.m. local time smoke was still rising from part of the building that was hit, watched by dozens of people shouting slogans.
A meeting room facing Gadhafi's office was badly damaged by the blast.
African leaders had met with Gadhafi two weeks ago to propose a peace plan that was accepted by the regime but turned down by the rebels.
The international coalition had already destroyed a building in the presidential compound, calling it a command center.
Heavy explosions had shaken the center of Tripoli shortly after midnight April 25 as warplanes overflew the Libyan capital. The blasts, the strongest to have hit the city so far, shook the hotel in which foreign correspondents here are staying not far from downtown.
The explosions hit several districts of Tripoli, which has been the target of intense NATO raids since April 22.
Libyan state television transmissions were briefly cut off right after the explosions, before resuming a few minutes later.
The official state news agency JANA quoted a military source as saying that "several military and civilian sites in the city of Tripoli were the targets of raids by the crusader colonialist aggressor (NATO) which caused human and structural damage."
An international coalition intervened in Libya on March 19 under a U.N. mandate to end the bloody suppression of a revolt that started in mid-February against the Gadhafi regime, which has been in power for 41 years.
NATO took over command of the military intervention March 31.
A Libyan official accompanying journalists at Gadhafi's compound said 45 people were wounded, 15 seriously, in the bombing. He added that he did not know whether there were victims under the rubble.
"It was an attempt to assassinate Colonel Gadhafi," he said.
Seif Al-Islam, Gadhafi's son, described the bombing as "cowardly."
"This cowardly attack on Moammar Gadhafi's office may frighten or terrorize children, but we will not abandon the battle and we are not afraid," he said, claiming that NATO's battle was "lost in advance."
At about 3 a.m. local time smoke was still rising from part of the building that was hit, watched by dozens of people shouting slogans.
A meeting room facing Gadhafi's office was badly damaged by the blast.
African leaders had met with Gadhafi two weeks ago to propose a peace plan that was accepted by the regime but turned down by the rebels.
The international coalition had already destroyed a building in the presidential compound, calling it a command center.
Heavy explosions had shaken the center of Tripoli shortly after midnight April 25 as warplanes overflew the Libyan capital. The blasts, the strongest to have hit the city so far, shook the hotel in which foreign correspondents here are staying not far from downtown.
The explosions hit several districts of Tripoli, which has been the target of intense NATO raids since April 22.
Libyan state television transmissions were briefly cut off right after the explosions, before resuming a few minutes later.
The official state news agency JANA quoted a military source as saying that "several military and civilian sites in the city of Tripoli were the targets of raids by the crusader colonialist aggressor (NATO) which caused human and structural damage."
An international coalition intervened in Libya on March 19 under a U.N. mandate to end the bloody suppression of a revolt that started in mid-February against the Gadhafi regime, which has been in power for 41 years.
NATO took over command of the military intervention March 31.
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