NATO Pounds Tripoli With Heaviest Bombing Yet

Bombardment targets area around Moammar Gadhafi's compound
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted May 24, 2011 1:19 AM CDT
Updated May 24, 2011 5:16 AM CDT
NATO Pounds Tripoli With Heaviest Bombing Yet
A paramedic looks on as the wounded are brought to a hospital following an airstrike in Tripoli, Libya, early today.   (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

NATO warplanes bombarded targets in Tripoli with more than 20 airstrikes early today, targeting the area around Moammar Gadhafi's Bab-al-Aziziya residential compound. It was the heaviest night of bombing of the Libyan capital since the Western alliance launched its air campaign against Libyan forces. The rapid string of strikes, all within less than half an hour, set off thunderous booms that rattled windows and sent heavy, acrid-smelling plumes of smoke over the city.

A Libyan government spokesman said at least three people were killed and dozens wounded in the NATO strikes that he said targeted buildings used by volunteer units of the Libyan army. NATO officials said that a number of the strikes hit a vehicle storage facility adjacent to Bab al-Aziziya that were being used to supply regime forces "conducting attacks on civilians," reports AP. It was not immediately clear if the facility was the only target hit in the barrage. (More Moammar Gadhafi stories.)

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