NATO continued its barrage of Tripoli early Wednesday, hours after leader Moammar Gadhafi defiantly addressed the nation in the wake of the Western alliance's most punishing airstrikes.
"We will not kneel!" he shouted in a fiery audio commentary on national TV in which he also urged supporters to rally at his compound.
Some 10 explosions shook the Libyan capital the morning after at least 40 thunderous daylight attacks that sent plumes of smoke billowing above the Libyan leader's central Tripoli compound.
"We only have one choice: We will stay in our land dead or alive,'' Gadhafi said. "Death, victory, it does not matter, we are not surrendering!" he shouted.
"We are stronger than your weapons, than your planes. The voices of the Libyan people are stronger than the sounds of explosions," he said, angrily calling the rebels who have risen up against him "bastards."
Minutes after he spoke, another explosion shook the capital as NATO apparently launched another strike. Pro-Gadhafi loyalists also fired a round of celebratory gunfire after his speech, which lasted at least six minutes.
Libyan state television later showed images of what it said was a Tuesday meeting between Gadhafi and tribal leaders at an unidentified location. The Libyan leader, wearing dark glasses and traditional robes, was greeting the leaders in a small room without windows.
Alliance officials warned for days that they were increasing the scope and intensity of their air campaign to oust Gadhafi after more than 40 years in power. NATO is backing the rebel insurgency, which has seized swaths of eastern Libya and pockets in the regime's stronghold in the west since it began in February, inspired by uprisings elsewhere in the Arab world.
Some 6,850 people, nearly all of them Libyans, have streamed across the border from Libya to Tunisia since Monday to flee the NATO raids as well as fighting between the rebels and government forces, according to the Tunisian Defense Ministry.
It couldn't be confirmed whether Gadhafi's some 10-minute speech was a live phone call or an audio recording, but it appeared to take state television by surprise. The sound was hastily adjusted to make it louder
As Gadhafi spoke, the sound of low-flying military aircraft could be heard whooshing through Tripoli again and Gadhafi quickly hung up. Pro-Gadhafi loyalists also fired celebratory gunfire in the air.
Gadhafi has mostly been in hiding since NATO strikes in April targeted one of his homes. Libyan officials said one of his sons, Saif al-Arab, and three of his grandchildren were killed.
Gadhafi's last audio statement lasted less than a minute and was in mid-May. He was last seen in a brief glimpse of TV footage sitting with visiting South African President Jacob Zuma in late May.
Libyan television said several structures in the Gadhafi compound were badly damaged. NBC News confirmed Gadhafi's compound had been hit, and reported that the military offered to take reporters to the scene to survey the damage. As bombs were still falling in the area, many declined the invitation.
At least one man was killed, officials said.
Daylight NATO raids have been rare and signal an intensification of the alliance bid to drive Gadhafi from power.
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.
"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 compound hosts homes, guest houses, large grassy knolls and a camp ground where pro-Gadhafi loyalists sleep. The television said nearby homes were also damaged, along with some infrastructure.
'Gadhafi must step dowwn'
On Tuesday, President Barack Obama once again called on Gadhafi to step aside.
"Gadhafi must step down and hand power to the Libyan people, and the pressure will only continue to increase until he does," Obama said during a joint news conference in Washington with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is heading to the United Arab Emirates to confer with NATO nations and others prosecuting an air campaign in Libya to assess the effort to get Gadhafi to leave and increase support for the country's opposition.
Western reporters and a senior Libyan government official said the pounding airstrikes Tuesday easily outstripped the number of bombing runs on any day since the international air campaign began in mid-March.
Ibrahim claimed some 31 people were killed in 60 NATO strikes on Tripoli. Previous government tolls have proven to be exaggerated.
Dead man seen
Reporters, who face tight restrictions in the Libyan capital, saw only one dead man during a visit to Gadhafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound.
The dust-covered bloodied man was draped around a cement column at one of the crushed compound buildings. He was seen on a government-escorted tour of bombed sites.
The boot and legs of the man, identified as Misbah Hussein, in his forties, stuck out from beneath a pile of twisted metal close to the remains of a building just inside the eastern entrance of the Gadhafi compound.
As his comrades realized what they were staring at, they rushed toward him, their arms raised.
"Bring a blanket!" one shouted.
They wrapped him in the closest thing they could find — a large green flag — green being the iconic color of the Gadhafi regime.
A soldier said eight strikes targeted the building, which he said was a guest house for visiting dignitaries.
Around him, one building was smashed into three hulking cement parts and the floor was strewn with small chunks of metal, foam and cement.
He said some two dozen soldiers and civilians were sitting near the building when it was hit. He would not be named, citing military regulations.
A strike smashed another nearby building that officials identified as a guest house. The ground was littered with small gray shards.
That was not far from a zone where pro-Gadhafi supporters have camped in tents for the past few weeks to act as human shields against NATO strikes. Ibrahim, the regime spokesman, said the attacks would spawn "generations of revenge."
NATO issued no immediate comment on battering it delivered over Tripoli.
Defections continue
Gadhafi's inner circle has been shaken by a wave of defections. A Libyan rebel diplomat in Geneva said Tuesday that the country's labor minister Al-Amin Manfour — who had been representing Libya at the International Labor Organization's annual meeting — has defected and joined the rebels.
Adel Shaltut said Tuesday that Manfour was on his way to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, in eastern Libya. Shaltut and other diplomats at Libya's mission to the United Nations in Geneva defected to the rebels in February.
Russia, meanwhile was renewing diplomatic efforts to end the civil war.
Mikhail Margelov, the Kremlin's special representative for Africa, said Gadhafi had lost his legitimacy but that NATO airstrikes were not a solution to the stalemate in Libya.
"As long as bloodshed continues the more difficult it will be to build a national reconciliation process after the civil war," Margelov told reporters Tuesday during a visit to the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi.
Russia, along with China, abstained in the U.N. Security Council vote authorizing the use of force against Libyan government loyalists and has repeatedly criticized the NATO bombing campaign in support of the rebels.
U.N. envoy Abdelilah Al-Khatib also arrived in Tripoli, Ibrahim said, without providing details. And Libya dispatched Foreign Minister Abdul-Ati al-Obeidi to Beijing for a three days of talks, an apparent effort to restore some of Libyan government influence and defuse a setback delivered by China last week. Chinese officials announced on Friday that they had reached out to the rebel forces challenging Gadhafi, a significant effort to boost Chinese engagement in the Libya conflict and possibly jostle for a mediator role.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters at a regular briefing Tuesday that talks with al-Obeidi would focus on the need for a political solution to the Libyan crisis.
The revolt against Gadhafi followed popular uprisings that overturned the longtime rulers of Tunisia and Egypt. As the conflict escalated, it grew beyond an insurrection by a small group and has now evolved into a civil war.