Qaddafi Denies He is Wounded

USA Today reports:

In a brief audio recording purportedly from the Libyan leader, Moammar Gadhafi says he is alive after NATO attacks and "in a place where you can't get me."

The message, played on Libyan state TV, followed the Italian foreign minister's statement that he believed that Gadhafi had been wounded in the airstrikes on his Tripoli compound and had fled the capital but not the country, Reuters reports. The Libyan leader's spokesman dismissed the claim he had been wounded.

"I tell the cowardly crusader that I live in a place they cannot reach and where you cannot kill me .... I live in the hearts of the millions," said the voice, which Reuters reports sounded like Gadhafi's.

He also said had received a "massive" number of calls asking about his condition following a NATO air strike on his compound Thursday.

Earlier, Italy's foreign minister, Franco Frattini, said Gadhafi may be wounded and has left the capital.

"I tend to give credence to the comment of the bishop of Tripoli, Monsignor Martinelli, who has been in close contact over recent weeks, when he told us that Gadhafi is very probably outside Tripoli and is probably also wounded. We don't know where or how," Frattini told reporters in Italy.

Gadhafi's spokesperson dismissed Frattini's claims.

"The leader is in high morale. He's in good spirits. He is leading the country day by day. He hasn't been harmed at all," Mussa Ibrahim said.