NATO airplanes rocked Tripoli by fresh strikes on Friday as Russia and China were planning mediation missions in order to end the crisis in Libya.
NATO airplanes rocked Tripoli by fresh strikes on Friday as Russia and China were planning mediation missions in order to end the crisis in Libya.
Four explosions were heard at 11:35 pm Thursday from the center of Tripoli, followed by others about 15 minutes later.
Then at 1:45 am four powerful blasts shook the district where strongman Muammar Gaddafi's residence is located not far from the city centre.
An army barracks in the same sector had been the target of several raids last week.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Moscow would be sending an envoy to Tripoli and the opposition's capital of Benghazi to mediate, the Italian news agency ANSA reported, quoting diplomats.
Medvedev stressed the importance of a negotiated settlement at talks with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in Rome.
"We would like as much as possible for the problem to be resolved through negotiations and not by military means," Medvedev told reporters.
Russia has enjoyed close ti
es with Gaddafi's regime and abstained from the UN Security Council vote in March that gave the go-ahead for international military action in Libya.
But it has increasingly distanced itself from the regime and at a G8 summit in France last week, Medvedev pledged to ramp up diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.
For its part, China, which also abstained in the Security Council vote, announced on Friday that it had opened talks with the opposition.
China's ambassador to Qatar, Zhang Zhiliang, held talks with Mustafa Abdul Jalil of the opposition National Transitional Council (NTC) in recent days, foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a statement.
"The two sides exchanged views on the Libyan situation," Hong said.
China's position on the Libyan issue is clear -- we hope that the Libyan crisis can be resolved through political means and that the future of Libya is decided by the Libyan people."
He did not specify when or where the meeting took place.
On the other hand, in Washington, US military chief Admiral Mike Mullen pointed to "some signs, certainly in the last few days, that Gaddafi is becoming more and more isolated."
He noted the defection of oil minister Shukri Ghanem, who had
been a key figure in the regime, along with a group of "young generals" who had also parted with Gaddafi.
Mullen also welcomed NATO's extension of its UN-mandated mission to protect civilians through military action until late September.
