TRIPOLI - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's office in his immense Tripoli residence has been destroyed in an air strike, officials said on Monday. A Libyan official accompanying journalists at the scene said 45 people were wounded, 15 seriously, in the bombing on Monday. He added that he did not know whether there were victims under the rubble.'It was an attempt to assassinate Colonel Gaddafi,' he said. A meeting room facing Gaddafi's office was badly damaged by the blast. Sofas, chandeliers and picture frames that had been knocked to the ground could be seen amid the rubble. A security guard at the site, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said two large missiles or bombs exploded in the compound just after midnight, lightly wounding four people. Gaddafi's whereabouts at the time of the attack were unclear. Early in the campaign against Gaddafi last month, a cruise missile blasted an administration building in the same complex, knocking down half the three-story building. Late on Friday, NATO warplanes targeted the Bab Al-Aziziya district, where the presidential compound is located. Heavy explosions shook the centre of Tripoli early on Monday as warplanes flew over the Libyan capital. The blasts, the strongest to have hit the city so far, shook the hotel in which foreign correspondents are staying not far from downtown. The explosions came at 12.10am (0810 AEST) in several districts of Tripoli. Libyan state television transmissions were briefly cut off right after the explosions, before resuming a few minutes later.
