TRIPOLI, May 20: Nato said on Friday its warplanes hit eight vessels of Muammar Qadhafi's navy, after US President Barack Obama predicted the Libyan strongman would “inevitably” leave or be forced from power.
The authorities in Tripoli slammed Obama's comments as “delusional,” while strongly denying reports that Qadhafi's wife and daughter had fled to Tunisia and that Oil Minister Shukri Ghanem had defected.
“Nato and coalition air assets continued their precision air strikes against pro-Qadhafi regime forces overnight with a coordinated strike against pro-Qadhafi forces in the ports of Tripoli, Al-Khums and Sirte,” the western alliance said.
“Overnight, Nato aircraft hit pro-Qadhafi warships, striking eight vessels,” it added.
“Given the escalating use of naval assets, Nato had no choice but to take decisive action to protect the civilian population of Libya and Nato forces at sea,” said Rear Admiral Russell Harding, deputy head of the Nato-led air war.
Fresh explosions were heard in the Libyan capital early on Friday, hours after the air strikes targeted the city's port, with a ship still ablaze from the raid.
Harding insisted that all of the targets hit were military but government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim accused Nato of seeking to scare international shipping firms into steering clear of government-held ports.
“Whatever the ship that has been hit, it is clearly a message sent by Nato to the international maritime companies not to send any more vessels to Libya,” Ibrahim told reporters in Tripoli.
British aircraft targeted Al-Khums, the nearest naval base under the control of Qadhafi forces to the rebel-held city of Misrata, British defence staff spokesman Major General John Lorimer said.
“As well as hitting two corvettes in the harbour, the Royal Air Force Tornados successfully targeted a facility in the dockyard constructing fast inflatable boats, which Libyan forces have used several times in their efforts to mine Misrata and attack vessels in the area,” Lorimer said.
“The destruction last night of the facility and a significant stockpile of the boats will reduce the regime's ability to sustain such tactics,” he added.
Nato has increased the pressure on Qadhafi by hitting several command and control centres in Tripoli in recent days.—AFP