Nato air strike targets Tripoli in heaviest bombing for weeks

Nato warplanes attacked the Libyan capital of Tripoli today, the heaviest bombing for weeks.

One strike hit a building that residents said was used by a military intelligence agency, another targeted a government building sometimes used by parliament members. Plumes of smoke appeared over the sprawling compound housing members of Colonel Gaddafi's family.

Heavy fighting was reported south of Ajdabiya, a rebel-held town about 90 miles south of Benghazi, headquarters of the opposition.

About 100 pick-up trucks returned from the front, each carrying four or five fighters and some with mounted submachineguns. The rebels, firing weapons into the air as they shouted and danced, said they had been told that Nato was going to launch air strikes on Gaddafi's forces and they had been ordered to withdraw temporarily.

The rebel army has been bogged down for weeks around Ajdabiya, unable to move on to the oil town of Brega.