Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi taunted his opponents in an audio recording aired on state television Friday, proving he is alive after NATO airstrikes on his compound and saying he is staying in a place "where you can't reach me."
He said he has the support of millions of Libyans.
Gadhafi's statement said in part that he is living "in a place where you can't reach me to kill me. I live in the hearts of my people."
Gadhafi added: "If you kill my body you won't be able to kill my soul, which abides in the hearts of millions."
He said he was making the statement after receiving a "massive" number of calls asking about his condition following a NATO airstrike on his compound on Thursday.
Hours after his statement, two explosions were heard in Tripoli on Friday night, al-Arabiya television reported, quoting witnesses. The satellite channel said that aircraft were heard in the skies but gave no further details.
Gadhafi's one-minute statement came hours after Italy said on Friday he had likely left the Libyan capital and probably been wounded by NATO airstrikes.
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said he heard the report on Gadhafi from the bishop of Tripoli, Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli.
"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 said.
A Libyan government spokesman immediately dismissed the report as "nonsense."
NATO allies including the United States, Britain and France are bombing Libya as part of a U.N. mandate to protect civilians and they say they will not stop until the Libyan leader's 41-year rule ends.
There was no independent confirmation of Frattini's report. The Libyan government poured scorn on it.
"It's nonsense," Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said in Tripoli. "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."
In Spain, radio station Cadena Ser, citing ICC sources, reported that the International Criminal Court prosecutor will request arrest warrants for Gadhafi, his son and Libya's head of espionage on Monday. ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo was recently interviewed on the Cadena Ser radio station.
Clerics killed?
Meanwhile, Ibrahim said 11 Muslim clerics were killed in their sleep by a NATO airstrike on the eastern oil town of Brega.
The clerics were among a large group of imams who had gathered in Brega to pray for peace in conflict-ridden Libya, Ibrahim said. He said 11 imams were killed and 50 people wounded, including five in critical condition.
NATO said the strike was directed against a "command and control bunker."
"We are aware of allegations of civilian casualties in connection to this strike, and although we cannot independently confirm the validity of the claim, we regret any loss of life by innocent civilians when they occur," NATO said in a statement.
NATO has been intensifying airstrikes in many parts of Libya against troops and installations of Gadhafi's regime in a bid to weaken his campaign against a rebel uprising. One of the recent strikes hit Gadhafi's main compound in Tripoli, the capital, and more strikes were carried out Friday.
Ibrahim said the imams had convened a prayer service on Thursday that was broadcast by Libyan TV. When it ended, they went to guesthouse to spend the night, and the attack occurred as they slept, he said, adding that the house was reduced to rubble.
"NATO proves that it doesn't have a moral center," Ibrahim said. "Now they are moving to kill imams, religious leaders who are calling for peace."
Ali Abou el-Sowa, an imam who accompanied Ibrahim at the announcement of the attack, said NATO "should expect a very harsh reaction from all Muslims."
He referred to Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaida terrorist leader killed in a U.S. raid in Pakistan last week.
"I would like to remind my brothers ... how Osama bin Laden came into existence," the imam said. "He was reacting to the extremist actions by the West against Islam. We do not think al-Qaida is justifiable, but we would like to remind you that hatred begets hatred."
State television reported earlier that a NATO airstrike killed at least 16 civilians and wounded up to 40 at a guest house in Brega. It said the attack occurred at dawn Friday and most of the victims were clerics who had gathered for a religious ceremony.
"They were a group of Muslim sheiks (religious leaders) [who] were holding a religious ceremony in the area of a Brega," a witness said in the report, broadcast on the Jamahiriya and Al-Libya channels.
"This is a civilian house," he said, pointing to a destroyed building in the city, which contains an important oil terminal and has passed back and forth between rebel and government troops. "Look at what the crusaders have done, what NATO had done."
Television footage showed at least nine bodies with multiple wounds wrapped in blankets at an unidentified location.
Fighting reported in TripoliMeanwhile, anti-Gadhafi activists reported gunfights between protesters and soldiers in several of the capital's neighborhoods.
Slideshow  81 photos
Libya's uprising against Gadhafi
The protests, coupled with worsening shortages of fuel and other goods, have prompted Gadhafi's rebel opponents to predict that his hold on the capital may be in jeopardy.
The sound of two airstrikes could be heard in Tripoli early Friday, though it was not immediately clear what they targeted.
On Thursday, Gadhafi's fortified compound in the capital was among the targets as NATO carried out 52 strike missions across Libya. Other targets included anti-aircraft missile launchers near Tripoli and several buildings and gun emplacements being used by regime forces in their siege of the rebel-held port city of Misrata.
In a statement, an opposition representative said government rocket attacks Friday targeting urban areas of Misrata had destroyed five houses. Two toddlers were reportedly among the dead and their 4-year-old sister was seriously injured, the statement said.