Gaddafi Forced into Hiding by NATO

The Washington Post reports

TRIPOLI, Libya — The NATO bombardment of Tripoli has forced Moammar Gaddafi into hiding, a spokesman for the bloc said Friday, as Western officials kept up efforts to undermine support for the Libyan leader.

Libyan navy and coast guard vessels along the coast were hit by NATO late Thursday, including several in the port of Tripoli, according to Libyan and NATO officials. The strikes will effectively shut down the port, the country’s largest, Libyan officials said, because commercial ships will no longer want to dock there.

Western military officials concerned about a stalemate have escalated pressure in recent days to try to get Gaddafi to relinquish his 41-year grip on power.

Airstrikes in Tripoli have “limited Gaddafi’s ability to give orders to his forces,” NATO spokesman Wing Cmdr. Mike Bracken said in a briefing in Brussels on Friday. “Effectively, he’s gone into hiding.”

Western officials appear to be trying to isolate Gaddafi in the hopes that support for him will eventually melt away at the highest levels of his government. One top official, Shokri Ghanem, head of the National Oil Co., fled the country this week, and the Libyan government says it has been in only intermittent contact with him since.