Tripoli bombing sends Gaddafi into screaming defiance of alliance forces

Provoked by renewed day time Nato bombing of his capital, Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi raged against the alliance yesterday, screaming his message and daring Western forces to keep it up.

Gaddafi spoke in a telephone call that was piped through loudspeakers to a few thousand people demonstrating in Tripoli's Green Square, at the end of a day when Nato intensified bombing runs across the capital.

"Nato will be defeated," he yelled in a hoarse, agitated voice. "They will pull out in defeat."

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East of Tripoli, meanwhile, Colonel Gaddafi's forces exchanged intense shelling with rebels who are slowly breaking the government siege on their western stronghold, Misrata.

Doctors at the Hikma hospital in Misrata said nine rebel fighters and a woman living near the battle were killed and 30 others were wounded. Government casualties were not known.

For weeks rebels had been bottled up in Misrata, one of a handful of toeholds in western Libya.

As Nato warplanes began stepping up attacks on Libyan government forces, bases and ammunition depots in recent days, the rebels in Misrata used the distraction to start their push out of Misrata toward Tripoli.Fighting has been intense along that front, with the rebels only able to advance about 20 miles.

Nato attacked the Libyan capital at midday yesterday, sending up a thick cloud of black smoke.

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