Libya: Nato's most ferocious air strike on Tripoli

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Libya: Nato's most ferocious air strike on Tripoli

NATO'S frustration with the pace of events in Libya was felt first as a

subterranean rumble, then as the shriek of jets, and finally the sharp blast of

high explosives.

" The whole ceiling was just vibrating, " said Ola Remi, 30, a Nigerian who lives

in a house next to the impact zone. " The whole area, all the houses, shook. "

" Imagine what it's like for our mothers and children, " shouted Fathallah Salem,

45. " We really thought it was the Day of Judgement. "

Tripoli has got used to the sound of bombs. But the Nato attack in the early

hours of Tuesday morning was of a different order.

The first strike was not followed by another across the city, or in some other

military base, as on previous occasions. For half an hour the same site was

pounded by at least 15 bombs, huge orange fireballs exploding into the sky from

behind the walls of what the government said was a base for a reserve militia

that had been evacuated for fear it would be hit.

Nato said it was a storage vehicle for military vehicles of the sort used in

" conducting attacks on civilians " , which would square with the distinctive black

plume of smoke smelling of diesel and rubber that wafted over the city. But the

intensity of the bombing, greater than anything seen in such a concentrated area

since raids began in March, suggested a higher profile target, such as an

intelligence headquarters.

Or perhaps the aim was just to frighten – both the loyalists who live in the

area around the base in central Tripoli, and those in the Gaddafi family and

regime compound of Bab al-Azizia next door.

It may not work for Col Gaddafi, though his prime minister, Baghdadi Mahmoudi,

cancelled his weekly press conference on Tuesday without giving a reason. But

fear is certainly working for Tripoli's residents.

" I brought my mother to hospital, she was so shocked, " Mr Salem said.

" There are people here who live in slums – imagine how terrified they are. "

Fear and uncertainty is everywhere. Generally in government-held Libya, the

surface impression is of greater normality, apart from the huge lines of cars

queuing for petrol.

In the towns of Zuwara and Zawiya, both retaken by government forces in March,

civilians have returned to the streets and even the cafés.

In Tripoli too more shops are open than before.

But the efforts of both the Nato bombers and the government machine have made

that normality brittle. " They are still arresting people every night, " said one

resident of eastern Tripoli. " There are small acts of resistance, but it is

impossible to organise anything together. "

The fear created by the government in its supporters is a mirror image.

Reporters taken to Tripoli Central Hospital immediately after the raid were

encouraged to view and film the hideously deformed bodies of the three men, aged

22, 25, and 27, the regime said had been killed – a lesson, so officials

repeatedly say, about the truth of NATO'S claim to be protecting civilians.

Meanwhile at a rally on Tuesday for African residents of Tripoli, many of whom

are Gaddafi loyalists thanks to his generosity with housing and jobs, warnings

were handed out of the " bad treating for black-skinned people being practised by

fighting criminal gangs " .

Violence meted out by the rebels in the east against captured Chadians and other

Africans, suspected of being mercenaries, has been widely advertised in Tripoli.

" If the rebels win they will kill us, " said Joy Badmos, 37, a Nigerian who has

lived in Tripoli for 15 years running a family fashion design business. " We have

seen on state TV how the rebels are killing Africans " .

The fear has created a fragile atmosphere in which, so Nato hopes, anything can

happen. At the allied base in Gioia del Colle in Italy at least, from where the

raids were launched, the night was regarded as a success.

" This will have a massive psychological impact on Gaddafi's regime and his

ability to continue terrorising his own people, " said Group Captain Sammy

Sampson, 43, the commanding officer of the RAF's 906 Expeditionary Air Wing,

whose Typhoon and Tornado GR4 jets led the attack.

The hope and expectation is that air power will achieve against Col Gaddafi what

that employed against Serbia during the Kosovo war of 1999 did for Slobodan

Milosevic. All Libya can do is wait to see if Nato exercises the same patience

as it did then – and whether, as then, one violent escalation leads to another.