Nato batters Tripoli ahead of Russian envoy visit

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Nato warplanes battered Muammar Gaddafi’s command network in Tripoli, the alliance said on Monday ahead of a visit to Libya by an envoy from Russia, which has raised concerns about the military campaign.

Five powerful blasts rocked Tripoli late on Sunday after three waves of explosions during the day, as warplanes overflow the city which has been the target of intense Nato raids for the past two weeks.

In a statement, the military alliance said it conducted “intensive and sustained strikes against pro-Gaddafi facilities in Tripoli throughout the day and night,” including command and control centres. “We will continue to erode (the Gaddafi regime’s) foundations until the violence against the Libyan population ends,” it quoted Lt. Gen.Charles Bouchard, commander in chief of the Nato mission, as saying.

Nato also reported strikes against three military vehicles in the vicinity of the strategic oil town of Brega and an armoured vehicle near rebel-held Misrata, Libya’s third city.The latest salvos came as Russian mediator Mikhail Margelov prepared to head to the Libyan rebel stronghold of Benghazi after Moscow voiced concerns about the Nato operation sliding towards a land campaign.Margelov, President Dmitry Medvedev’s Africa envoy, told Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency he would meet rebel leaders including Mustafa Abdul Jalil, head of the national transitional council that controls eastern Libya around Benghazi.