LOW-FLYING NATO military craft have unleashed a ferocious series of nearly 30 daytime airstrikes onTripoli, ratting the Libyan capital and sending plumes of smoke billowing above the compound of Muammar Gaddafi.

Reporters counted at least 27 strikes by mid-afternoon, and Libyan television said several structures in the Gaddafi compound were badly damaged.

Daylight NATO raids have been rare, and signal an intensification of the alliance bid to drive Gaddafi from power. There were no immediate reports on the scale of any casualties.

Ambulances, sirens blaring, could be heard racing through the city during the daylong raids that shook the ground and sent thundering sound waves across the capital. Some of the strikes were believed to have targeted a military barracks near Gadhafi’s sprawling central Tripoli compound, said spokesman Moussa Ibrahim.

Others hit the compound itself, Libyan television reported. Pro-Gadhafi loyalists in the capital fired weapons into the air but after the NATO strikes had ended.

“Instead of talking to us, they are bombing us. They are going mad. They are losing their heads,” said Ibrahim.

The spokesman said the daylight strikes were particularly terrifying because families were separated during the day. Libyan school children are taking final exams at the end of the school year.

“Tens of thousands of children are in Tripoli. You can imagine the shock and horror of the children. You can imagine the horror of parents who can’t check on their children who are far away,” Ibrahim said.

The strikes began at around 11:30am local time and continued through the day. Some landed in clusters of two and three booming explosions.

NATO officials have warned for days that they were increasing the scope and intensity of their two-month campaign to oust Gaddafi after over 40 years in power. The alliance is assisting a four-month old rebel insurgency that has seized swathes of eastern Libya, and pockets in the regime’s stronghold in the west.

AP