Gadhafi's compound in Libya struck

A missile struck a building on Sunday night in the compound where Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi lives, fueling the rage that has erupted among his supporters since UN-mandated airstrikes began on Saturday.

Government officials took reporters to see the collapsed building here, littered with concrete and missile parts, shortly after a loud explosion was heard from the area.

A plume of smoke was seen rising from the Bab al-Aziziya compound, a walled, fortified enclave on the southwestern edge of the city where the Libyan leader lives.

The building was an administrative one located near the tent where Gadhafi receives visitors, and at the time a couple of hundred of his supporters were in the compound nearby, acting as human shields.

"This is the very famous home of our leader," government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said. "This place is protected by a voluntary human shield. The danger of harming people was real."

The attack took place as Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters in Washington that "we're not targeting [Gadhafi's] residence."

But the compound may have been struck by missiles fired by British or French forces, which have taken the lead in pursuing the effort to halt attacks by Libyan forces against rebels seeking to topple Gadhafi. CNN quoted "coalition sources" in Washington as saying that the building was hit because it contained "command and control" capabilities.

Gadhafi survived a 1986 U.S. airstrike on the compound, and he has maintained as a monument the bombed-out shell of his former residence about 100 yards away from the building that was hit Sunday.

Some inside the compound gathered at the bomb site to roar slogans supporting Gadhafi and denounce the world leaders who have lined up behind the mission.

Others milled around on the floodlit, manicured lawn as loudspeakers blared patriotic Libyan music.

"I am here to protect our leader," said Badridine Mufta, 27, who was spending his second night in the compound. "I am prepared to die with him . . . We are expecting to get killed."

Whether Gadhafi is still living there was unclear, however. He has not appeared in public since the UN Security Council voted on Thursday for a resolution authorizing the use of force.

Earlier in the day, he delivered a defiant audio address on state television from an undisclosed location, in which he warned the Western and Arab nations arrayed against him that they would face "a long war."

Libyan state media reported that 48 people had been killed and many injured in strikes overnight Saturday, among them civilians who died when civilian buildings were hit.

But the government would not allow journalists to visit hospitals or any of the other sites that were hit, making it difficult to verify the claims.