Opposition claims rebels are in control of Misrata

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) — All of the besieged Libyan city of Misrata has been “liberated,” an opposition spokesman said Thursday.

Abdul Hafiz Ghoga, a spokesman for the Transitional National Council, made the announcement to reporters in Benghazi.

The claim comes a day after council spokesmen sparred with a Libyan government spokesman over who was in control of the Misrata airport.

Meanwhile, at least two people were killed Thursday when four rockets struck Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s compound, a government spokesman told CNN. After the blasts, which could be heard in the center of Tripoli, sirens blared and at least two emergency vehicles sped toward the Bab al-Aziziya compound.

The Libya government took journalists near the site of the blast and smoke could be seen still rising from the compound. The bodies of at least two men were shown to reporters at a nearby hospital, and hospital officials said more victims were on the way.

Government officials said 27 people affected by the strike were also brought to the hospital. Most seemed to be suffering from smoke inhalation.

The Libyan government said another attack on the same compound April 30 had killed Gadhafi’s son Saif al-Arab Gadhafi and three of the leader’s grandchildren.

Libyan state television reported Thursday the North Korean embassy in Tripoli was damaged in a NATO airstrike.

On Wednesday, Shamsiddin Abdulmolah of the Transitional National Council said the airport in the southern part of Misrata had fallen to “revolutionaries” after opposition fighters in nearby Zlaitin joined their counterparts there.

But government spokesman Musa Ibrahim said government forces were in control of the airport and the seaport in Misrata. He said rebel forces had been there “for (a) short time and left.”

But a rebel spokesman in Misrata, who asked to be identified solely as Mohamed, said late Wednesday night that the rebels had retained control of the airport and were also in control of a civil defense base beyond the airport.

The capture of the airport would be key for rebels fighting the Gadhafi forces since it would provide an important entry point for humanitarian aid.

Two months of fighting and the ongoing shelling of the Misrata port have prevented most aid ships from docking there, leaving the city “at the forefront” of humanitarian concerns, a top U.N. official told the Security Council this week.

NATO warplanes and missiles have been pounding Gadhafi’s forces since March as Gadhafi’s troops try to quash a nearly three-month-old revolt against his nearly 42 years of rule.

The NATO mission aims to enforce a U.N. Security Council resolution that calls for the protection of civilians.

U.S. President Barack Obama and NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen will meet at the White House on Friday to discuss the alliance’s role.

On Thursday, British Prime Minister David Cameron met with Mustafa Abdul Jalil, chairman of the National Transitional Council, Cameron’s office said in a statement. Cameron invited the council to establish a formal office in London, and he also said the British presence in Benghazi would be boosted.

“These steps continue our very clear intention to work with the council to ensure Libya has a safe and stable future, free from the tyranny of the Gadhafi regime,” Cameron said in the statement.

“It is impossible to imagine a real future for Libya with Gadhafi in power,” he said. “The council represents the future of Libya as much as Gadhafi represents its past.”

NATO said Wednesday that vehicle and ammunition storage facilities, a surface-to-air missile launcher and an anti-aircraft gun had been hit in the Tripoli area. It also said in a news release that ambulance storage facilities were struck in Mizdah and Qaryat.

As for Misrata, Marie Colvin, the Middle East correspondent for Britain’s Sunday Times, told CNN earlier that rebel forces defending the city from government troops were making “meter-by-meter” gains despite heavy shelling and rocket attacks.

Units loyal to Gadhafi have been firing rockets and artillery shells into residential neighborhoods, leaving a nearby emergency room full of women, children and old men, she said.

“The rebels are very much trying, at a minimum, to push back Gadhafi’s lines so he simply can’t do that,” Colvin said Tuesday.

Almost 750,000 people have fled the country amid the fighting, and 58,000 more are displaced within Libya, Valerie Amos, the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs said.

At least 5,000 more are stranded at border crossings between Libya, Tunisia and Niger, Amos said.

Others have tried to flee by sea, but one such attempt appears to have ended in disaster for hundreds of refugees as their ship capsized off the capital. Two other vessels disappeared, and the fate of those on board was not known.

CNN’s Nima Elbagir and Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this story.