Libyan official: NATO strikes government buildings

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) — Crowds in Tripoli gathered Tuesday morning outside two burning buildings — the aftermath of what a Libyan official said were NATO airstrikes on government facilities.

Spokesman Musa Ibrahim said the buildings housed the Ministry of Popular Inspection and Oversight — a government anti-corruption body — and the head of the police force in Tripoli. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Earlier, the sounds of two explosions and jets pierced through the night sky.

Some people ventured outside in the early morning hours to inspect the damage. Others, including a crowd of young men carrying a large portrait of Moammar Gadhafi and waving the country’s green flag, marched in front of the buildings chanted slogans of support for the Libyan leader.

Documents were strewn over the grounds of the ministry building. Ibrahim told reporters that in the last few days, the ministry had put together corruption files against leaders in the Libyan opposition’s Transitional National Council. He said the files “fortunately survived.”

The area teemed with security forces, and men in civilian clothing carrying AK-47s shot into the air in a show of anger.

“Is this their (NATO’s) protection of civilians or terrifying civilians?” one of the armed men told CNN. “This is a civilian neighborhood … Residents are terrified.”

NATO on Tuesday said that over the past 24 hours, planes hit a “command & control node” and a “military training facility” in Tripoli and struck radar systems in the Tripoli vicinity.

The damage in Tripoli is one of the latest developments in Libya’s see-saw war, which has raged for months with no end in sight.

NATO is operating under a U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing the use of force and any means — except foreign occupation — to protect civilians. Allied forces have conducted airstrikes on Gadhafi’s resources for almost two months.

Libyan opposition members are demanding freedom and an end to Gadhafi’s nearly 42-year rule. But Gadhafi has refused to step down.

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court sought the arrest of Gadhafi and two relatives Monday, linking them to “widespread and systematic” attacks on civilians.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo told reporters his office has “direct evidence” linking Gadhafi, his son Saif al-Islam Gadhafi and his brother-in-law Abdullah al-Sanussi to crimes against humanity.

Ibrahim, the government spokesman, denied accusations against the regime. Judges on the international court must now decide whether to issue the arrest warrants Moreno-Ocampo wants.

Security forces in Libya are accused of using sexual enhancement drugs as a “machete” and gang-raping women they stop at checkpoints, according to Moreno-Ocampo.

Meanwhile, the government spokesman said four Western journalists detained by Libyan authorities will appear in court on Tuesday.

Ibrahim said Monday night he expected the American and Spanish journalists to be fined and released. He said he could not confirm the names of the journalists because he did not have the list.

Ibrahim said the journalists were detained for entering the country illegally from the east. Libyan authorities have threatened to detain journalists passing through the rebel-controlled eastern part of the country.

Many people have been working out ways to flee Libya.

The U.N. refugee agency said on Tuesday that hundreds of people who had fled Libya for Tunisia and Egypt “have crossed back into Libya with the intention of boarding boats to reach Europe.”

Members of the Somali, Ethiopian and Eritrean communities in camps at Shousha near Tunisia’s border with Libya are among them. Around 14,000 people have arrived by boat in Italy and Malta from Libya, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said.

The UNHCR said most have made the journey in boats “overladen with passengers and in a very poor state of repair.” Frequently, there’s “no qualified skipper or crew to operate the boat.”

“UNHCR has met with refugees in Tripoli who are planning to make this treacherous journey,” the agency said.

“UNHCR repeats its call to all vessels on the Mediterranean to consider all boats departing Libya to be in need of assistance, and likely to face a situation of distress at some point in the journey.”

CNN’s Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report.