Nato has accused Muammar Gaddafi of using mosques and children's parks as shields after the Libyan leader taunted the alliance in an address broadcast to protesters in Tripoli.
In a speech piped through loudspeakers to a few thousand people demonstrating in Green Square, Gaddafi railed against Nato's intensified air strikes in the capital.
"Nato will be defeated," Gaddafi yelled in a hoarse, agitated voice to the crowd. "They will pull out in defeat."
Nato has been ramping up the pressure on Gaddafi's entrenched regime. Though most air strikes happen at night, daytime raids have grown more frequent.
Officials on Saturday took journalists to visit a university building that the government claims was hit by a Nato air strike. Students and staff told reporters that an explosion that tore a hole in a three-story building housing classrooms and offices happened sometime on Friday, though accounts differed on the timing. No one was reported injured or killed.
One English-speaking student interviewed by the Associated Press was told what to say in Arabic by a plainclothes government official standing nearby.
The campus sits a few hundred meters from what appears to be a military installation. The building that was damaged was an aging concrete structure next to what students said were new university buildings under construction.
Libya's health ministry released new casualty figures that put the number of civilians killed in Nato air strikes up until 7 June at 856. There was no way to independently verify the figure and previous government-announced tolls from individual strikes have proven to be exaggerated. -The Guardian
Edited by Jess T.
"Nato will be defeated," Gaddafi yelled in a hoarse, agitated voice to the crowd. "They will pull out in defeat."
Nato spokeswoman Oana Lungescu dismissed Gaddafi's speech as propaganda, and countered claims from Libya's prime minister on Friday that the alliance was deliberately targeting civilian buildings. "We are saving countless lives every day across the country," she said. "We are conducting operations with utmost care and precision to avoid civilian casualties. Civilian casualties figures mentioned by the Libyan regime are pure propaganda."
She also accused Gaddafi and his regime of "systematically and brutally attacking the Libyan people", saying government forces "have been shelling cities, mining ports and using mosques and children's parks as shields".Nato has been ramping up the pressure on Gaddafi's entrenched regime. Though most air strikes happen at night, daytime raids have grown more frequent.
Officials on Saturday took journalists to visit a university building that the government claims was hit by a Nato air strike. Students and staff told reporters that an explosion that tore a hole in a three-story building housing classrooms and offices happened sometime on Friday, though accounts differed on the timing. No one was reported injured or killed.
One English-speaking student interviewed by the Associated Press was told what to say in Arabic by a plainclothes government official standing nearby.
The campus sits a few hundred meters from what appears to be a military installation. The building that was damaged was an aging concrete structure next to what students said were new university buildings under construction.
Libya's health ministry released new casualty figures that put the number of civilians killed in Nato air strikes up until 7 June at 856. There was no way to independently verify the figure and previous government-announced tolls from individual strikes have proven to be exaggerated. -The Guardian
Edited by Jess T.
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