A spokesman for Muammar Gadafy claimed this morning that Nato air strikes on Sirte overnight had hit a residential building and a hotel, killing 354 people.
His claim could not immediately be verified as Sirte, Gaddafi's hometown, has been largely cut off from communication since the fall of Tripoli and Nato comment was not immediately available.
In a call from a satellite phone to the Reuters office in Tunis, the spokesman said Nato had attacked Sirte last night with more than 30 rockets “directed at the city's main hotel and the Tamin building, which consists of more than 90 residential flats.”
He said the “result is more than 354 dead and 89 still missing and almost 700 injured in one night."
He said Gadafy was personally directing loyalist fighters who are holding back provisional government forces at his remaining strongholds in Libya. "He is leading all aspects of this struggle. He is talking to the people, he is lecturing, he is discussing, he is looking after all matters of the resistance," he said.
The spokesman said the deposed dictator was in Libya and confident of victory. "We will be able to continue this fight and we have enough arms for months and months to
come," he said.