Libyan state television has carried brief audio remarks it said were by leader Muammar Gaddafi in which he taunted NATO as a cowardly crusader and said he was in a place they could not reach.
The comments came after Italy's foreign minister said Gaddafi had very likely left the Libyan capital and probably been wounded by NATO air strikes, an account Tripoli dismissed.
‘I tell the cowardly crusader (NATO) that I live in a place they cannot reach and where you cannot kill me,’ said the voice, which sounded like Gaddafi's.
‘Even if you kill the body you will not be able to kill the soul that lives in the hearts of millions,’ Gaddafi said, adding he received a ‘massive’ number of calls following a NATO air strike on his Bab al-Aziziyah compound in Tripoli on Thursday.
There was no accompanying video.
But Libyan government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim said Gaddafi was unharmed and in Tripoli, leading the country and in good spirits.
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said he heard the report on Gaddafi from the bishop of Tripoli, Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli.
‘I tend to give credence to the comment of the bishop of Tripoli, Monsignor Martinelli, who has been in close contact over recent weeks, when he told us that Gaddafi is very probably outside Tripoli and is probably also wounded,’ Mr Frattini told reporters in Italy.
'We don't know where or how.'
Ibrahim said Italy's remarks were cover for a ‘horrendous’ NATO strike that hit a guesthouse in the eastern city of Brega that killed 11 people and wounded 45, five of whom were in critical condition.
State television showed footage of at least nine bodies with multiple wounds, wrapped in blankets.
A NATO official in Naples said they did not have any information on the report.
‘Once again NATO proves to the world that it has lost all human values and it is an alliance of barbarians,’ said Ibrahim.
Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court prosecutor will request arrest warrants for Gaddafi and two others on Monday, Spanish radio station Cadena Ser reported, citing ICC sources.
Libyan Rebels met senior White House officials in Washington today to seek cash and diplomatic legitimacy.
Rebels have been pleading for funds they say will help them hold besieged positions on the ground.
They want Washington to help free up to $180m in frozen Gaddafi assets to bankroll their campaign.
‘To those who stand behind Gaddafi they must know his regime is ending. There is no place for Muammar Gaddafi in Libya's future,’ rebel council chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil told Al Arabiya.
He pledged amnesty to any Gaddafi defectors.
White House spokesman Jay Carney called the Transitional Council 'a credible and legitimate interlocutor for the Libyan people.'
Libyan state television also said NATO warships hit a Red Crescent Society building when they shelled Misrata today.
It showed footage of medics and nurses wearing uniforms and Red Crescent insignia attending to wounded people with blood stains on their legs at a building it said was that of a Red Crescent Society.
A NATO official said the only incident he was aware of involving NATO warships in the area involved NATO ships exchanging fire with government forces ashore yesterday after moving to intercept an attack on Misrata by small boats.
