Four rockets struck the compound of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi on Thursday, killing at least two people, a government spokesman told reporters.
After the blasts, which could be heard in the center of Tripoli, sirens blared and at least two emergency vehicles sped toward the Bab al-Aziziya compound.
The Libya government took journalists near the site of the blast and smoke could be seen still rising from the compound. At least two dead bodies were at a nearby hospital, both of them men.
Government officials said 27 people affected by the strike were also brought to the hospital. Most seemed to be suffering from smoke inhalation.
On May 1, the Libyan government said another attack on the same compound had killed Gadhafi's son Saif al-Arab Gadhafi and three of the leader's grandchildren.
Thursday's strike came a day after spokesmen for the Libyan rebels sparred with a spokesman for the Libyan government over who was in control of the airport in the besieged city of Misrata.
During the day, Shamsiddin Abdulmolah of the Transitional National Council said the airport in the southern part of the war-torn city had fallen to "revolutionaries" after opposition fighters in nearby Zlaitin joined their counterparts in Misrata.
Government spokesman Musa Ibrahim said government forces were in control of the airport and the seaport in Misrata. He said rebel forces had been there "for (a) short time and left."
But a rebel spokesman in Misrata, who has asked to be identified solely as Mohamed, said late Wednesday night that the rebels had retained control of the airport and were also in control of a civil defense base beyond the airport.
The capture of the airport would be key for rebels fighting the Gadhafi forces since it would provide an important entry point for humanitarian aid.
Two months of fighting and the ongoing shelling of the Misrata port have prevented most aid ships from docking there, leaving the city "at the forefront" of humanitarian concerns, a top U.N. official told the Security Council this week.
NATO warplanes and missiles have been pounding Gadhafi's forces since March as Gadhafi's troops try to quash a nearly three-month-old revolt against his nearly 42 years of rule.
The NATO mission aims to enforce a U.N. Security Council resolution that calls for the protection of civilians.
U.S. President Barack Obama and NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen will meet at the White House on Friday to discuss the alliance's role.
NATO said Wednesday that vehicle and ammunition storage facilities, a surface-to-air missile launcher and an anti-aircraft gun had been hit in the Tripoli area. It also said in a news release that ambulance storage facilities were struck in Mizdah and Qaryat.
As for Misrata, Marie Colvin, the Middle East correspondent for Britain's Sunday Times, told reporters that rebel forces defending the city from government troops were making "meter-by-meter" gains despite heavy shelling and rocket attacks.
Units loyal to Gadhafi have been firing rockets and artillery shells into residential neighborhoods, leaving a nearby emergency room full of women, children and old men, she said.
"The rebels are very much trying, at a minimum, to push back Gadhafi's lines so he simply can't do that," Colvin said Tuesday.
Almost 750,000 people have fled the country amid the fighting, and 58,000 more are displaced within Libya, Valerie Amos, the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs said.
At least 5,000 more are stranded at border crossings between Libya, Tunisia and Niger, Amos said.
After the blasts, which could be heard in the center of Tripoli, sirens blared and at least two emergency vehicles sped toward the Bab al-Aziziya compound.
The Libya government took journalists near the site of the blast and smoke could be seen still rising from the compound. At least two dead bodies were at a nearby hospital, both of them men.
Government officials said 27 people affected by the strike were also brought to the hospital. Most seemed to be suffering from smoke inhalation.
On May 1, the Libyan government said another attack on the same compound had killed Gadhafi's son Saif al-Arab Gadhafi and three of the leader's grandchildren.
Thursday's strike came a day after spokesmen for the Libyan rebels sparred with a spokesman for the Libyan government over who was in control of the airport in the besieged city of Misrata.
During the day, Shamsiddin Abdulmolah of the Transitional National Council said the airport in the southern part of the war-torn city had fallen to "revolutionaries" after opposition fighters in nearby Zlaitin joined their counterparts in Misrata.
Government spokesman Musa Ibrahim said government forces were in control of the airport and the seaport in Misrata. He said rebel forces had been there "for (a) short time and left."
But a rebel spokesman in Misrata, who has asked to be identified solely as Mohamed, said late Wednesday night that the rebels had retained control of the airport and were also in control of a civil defense base beyond the airport.
The capture of the airport would be key for rebels fighting the Gadhafi forces since it would provide an important entry point for humanitarian aid.
Two months of fighting and the ongoing shelling of the Misrata port have prevented most aid ships from docking there, leaving the city "at the forefront" of humanitarian concerns, a top U.N. official told the Security Council this week.
NATO warplanes and missiles have been pounding Gadhafi's forces since March as Gadhafi's troops try to quash a nearly three-month-old revolt against his nearly 42 years of rule.
The NATO mission aims to enforce a U.N. Security Council resolution that calls for the protection of civilians.
U.S. President Barack Obama and NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen will meet at the White House on Friday to discuss the alliance's role.
NATO said Wednesday that vehicle and ammunition storage facilities, a surface-to-air missile launcher and an anti-aircraft gun had been hit in the Tripoli area. It also said in a news release that ambulance storage facilities were struck in Mizdah and Qaryat.
As for Misrata, Marie Colvin, the Middle East correspondent for Britain's Sunday Times, told reporters that rebel forces defending the city from government troops were making "meter-by-meter" gains despite heavy shelling and rocket attacks.
Units loyal to Gadhafi have been firing rockets and artillery shells into residential neighborhoods, leaving a nearby emergency room full of women, children and old men, she said.
"The rebels are very much trying, at a minimum, to push back Gadhafi's lines so he simply can't do that," Colvin said Tuesday.
Almost 750,000 people have fled the country amid the fighting, and 58,000 more are displaced within Libya, Valerie Amos, the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs said.
At least 5,000 more are stranded at border crossings between Libya, Tunisia and Niger, Amos said.
Others have tried to flee by sea, but one such attempt appears to have ended in disaster for hundreds of refugees as their ship capsized off the capital.
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