MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Gaddafi’s compound destroyed in air strike; Libyan military announce cease-fire

US Navy Vice Admiral William E Gortney said Gaddafi was not a target (Photo Reuters)

A three-storey building in a military command centre used by Muammar Gaddafi has been destroyed in an air strike by coalition forces. The Sunday-night strike was the first reported attack on the Bab al-Azizia, a sprawling compound in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, that Gaddafi has used several times as a setting for televised addresses, and which was bombed by the United States in 1986.

The regime invited journalists to visit the site of the attack early on Monday morning. Spokesman Mussa Ibrahim called it a “barbaric bombing” but said no one had been hurt. He declined to say whether Gaddafi himself was inside the compound.

Coalition forces from France, the United Kingdom, United States and other nations began striking the regime's military assets on Saturday as part of an effort to enforce a UN Security Council resolution aimed at protecting Libyan civilians.

Coalition officials told journalists on Monday that the building hit in the attack was a military command and control centre for Gaddafi.

The blasts came two days after the United Nations Security Council authorised international military action to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya, as well as “all necessary measures” to prevent attacks by Gaddafi forces on civilians.

The uprising against Gaddafi broke out on February 15, and hundreds of civilians have died in the regime’s brutal crackdown.

The US military said the coalition campaign, called Operation Odyssey Dawn in the United States, had succeeded in “severely degrading” Gaddafi''s air defences.

US Navy Vice Admiral William E Gortney stressed in a press briefing on Sunday that the Libyan leader is not a target for the international military assault on the country.

“There has been no new air activity by the regime and we have detected no radar emissions from any of the air defence sites targeted and there’s been a significant decrease in the use of all Libyan air surveillance radars” said Gortney.

Gortney said the coalition acting against Gaddafi, which originally grouped the US, Britain, France, Italy and Canada, had broadened to include Belgium and Qatar. His comments came shortly after the Libyan military announced its second ceasefire since the UN resolution authorising the no-fly zone was passed.

But the White House has said it will not recognise a ceasefire declaration.