Gaddafi blames ‘colonial plot’ amid Nato blitz

NATO warplanes blitzed a string of military targets in Tripoli yesterday, an official said, as embattled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi blamed a “colonial plot” for the conflict engulfing his country.

“In Tripoli there were two command and control nodes, two surface-to-air missile launchers and one anti-aircraft gun (hit),” a Nato official said from the mission’s headquarters in Naples, Italy.

An AFP reporter said two blasts occurred at 12.50am local time (10.50pm GMT) in the area housing Gaddafi’s residence in the heart of the capital, followed by others in the city’s eastern and southeastern suburbs.

A column of smoke was seen over Gaddafi’s residential complex, which was targeted by Nato warplanes on Saturday, when the transatlantic military alliance confirmed seven strikes and said they had hit a military command node.

Late on Saturday Gaddafi said in an audio message on state television that the unrest that has swept his country since a popular uprising erupted in mid-February was a “colonial plot.”

He did not elaborate.

He also denied accusations by international rights groups of a brutal suppression of dissent and allegations that his regime had killed thousands of protesters.

“They lie to you and say, ‘Libya kills its people with bullets, that is why we have come to protect civilians’,” Gaddafi said, referring to the Nato air campaign which was mandated by the United Nations with the aim of protecting civilians in Libya.

“Only eight people have been killed and an inquiry is under way to determine who killed them. There are no protests and no gunfire.

“Show us where the thousands of people (reportedly killed) are buried,” Gaddafi said.

Meanwhile, a suicide attacker driving a pickup truck packed with explosives blew himself up outside an army camp in Yemen’s coastal city of Aden yesterday, killing at least eight soldiers and wounding dozens, security officials said.

The officials said the blast took place near the gate of the camp as a column of vehicles loaded with troops and supplies was preparing to leave for nearby Abyan province to fight al-Qaida-linked militants.

Among the dead were two senior officers, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.