TRIPOLI, July 23, (Agencies): NATO-led warplanes struck the Libyan capital early on Saturday, with the alliance saying they hit a military command centre and Muammar Gaddafi’s regime saying that civilians were targeted.
At least seven powerful explosions were heard at around 2:20 am (0020 GMT), as state television quoted a military official as saying NATO aircraft “are currently bombing civilian sites in the capital Tripoli.”
In Brussels, an Atlantic alliance official said “NATO can confirm that we targeted military objectives in Tripoli this morning,” and that the the seven strikes were on a command and control node.
Two more explosions were heard in the same area at about midday.
Morale is low among troops fighting for Muammar Gaddafi on the front west of Misrata and many are reluctant to fight back against rebel attacks, a recently-wounded loyalist soldier told Reuters on Friday.
“Most of them are exhausted, especially as we approach the month of Ramadan,” said the soldier, who spoke on condition his name and his hometown not be mentioned for fear of reprisals against his family. “They don’t want to fight during Ramadan.”
“They want everything to settle and we’re all Libyan brothers,” he added. “We don’t want to harm each other.”

As the war in Libya drags on, the US military is weighing options that may deepen its involvement in the conflict and its alliance with rebels trying to overthrow Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
A US official told Reuters on Friday that the United States is considering a NATO request to send more Predator drones to Libya, as well as other surveillance aircraft. It has also reopened a debate over arming the rebels, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The United States is investigating reports that a ship carrying weapons for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s forces was allowed to dock in Algeria, which would be considered a violation of UN resolutions, a State Department official said on Friday.
The United States called on Algeria, if it was aware of the shipment, to stop it from reaching Gaddafi’s forces.
Libyan representatives are ready to hold more talks with the United States and with rebels hoping to push Muammar Gaddafi from power, but Gaddafi will not bow to demands he quit, a government spokesman said.
Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said senior Libyan officials had a ‘productive dialogue’ with US counterparts last week in a rare meeting that followed the Obama administration’s recognition of the rebel government that hopes to end Gaddafi’s 41-year rule.

Syria
Two explosions were heard overnight from inside the Syrian Army War College in the city of Homs, scene of military assaults to crush protests against President Bashar al-Assad’s rule, residents said on Saturday.
The sound of heavy gunfire was heard and ambulances were seen heading to the compound in the old al-Waer district, two residents told Reuters by telephone.
“Smoke rose from inside the premises. The injured were taken to the military hospital. It looked like an operation of some sort,” said one of the residents, who declined to be named.
There was no immediate comment from the Syrian authorities.
Syrian forces on Saturday stormed villages in the northwest and rounded up civilians in the flashpoint city of Homs, activists said, as UN officials pointed to possible crimes against humanity in the crackdown on dissent.

Activists charged that the authorities were stepping up their repression of four months of protests against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad ahead of the start on August 1 of the holy fasting month of Ramadan.
Syrian security forces on Saturday arrested several civilians, including women, in the flashpoint central city of Homs where gunfire was also heard, activists told AFP.
“Gunshots were heard in Al-Khalidiyeh neighbourhood and security forces have been making arrests,” Abdel Karim Rihawi, the head of the Syrian League for the Defence of Human Rights, said by telephone.
Another activist, Rami Abdel Rahman of the London-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, spoke of a “campaign of arrests in Homs that has targeted several women.”

Egypt
Dozens of people were injured in Cairo on Saturday when thousands of demonstrators fought opponents with stones after marching to the Defence Ministry to urge their military rulers to speed up reforms, witnesses said.
They said most of the injuries occurred when civilians believed to be thugs hurled barrages of stones and at least six firebombs at demonstrators, who fought back with stones torn up from the pavements.
Military police, armed with Tasers and batons, fired in the air to stop the demonstrators from approaching the Defence Ministry. A Reuters witness said tear gas fumes were wafting outside the area as military helicopters circled overhead.
An aide to the health minister told state television that 55 people were hurt in the violence, including six who required hospital treatment.
The clashes broke out after the head of the ruling military council, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, promised in a televised speech to push ahead with elections to transform the Arab world’s most populous nation into a democracy.
Young protesters were angered by clashes between military police and protesters in a number of cities on Friday, in which up to 10 protesters and four policemen were hurt.
The army denied using force against the demonstrators.

Bahrain
Saudi Arabia has been rotating some of its troops in Bahrain, the Bahraini state news agency BNA said on Saturday, following reports more Saudi troops may have been sent to quell unrest in the Gulf island state.
Security forces from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were sent into Bahrain in mid-March to help clear the streets of protesters who had been staging demonstrations since February.
The troops were part of a Peninsula Shield force set up by Gulf Arab states for their mutual defence.
“The Peninsula Shield forces present in Bahrain reposition certain military units ... as part of a routine operation,” BNA quoted a Bahraini defence official as saying.
A Reuters witness saw no troop movements on Saturday evening on a causeway joining Saudi Arabia to neighbouring Bahrain, and a Bahraini opposition spokesman declined to comment on the report of a possible deployment of fresh forces.
On Friday, tens of thousands of people rallied in support of Bahrain’s largest Shiite opposition group after it pulled out of government-led national reform talks earlier this week.
The dialogue was initiated by the Gulf kingdom’s Sunni rulers after a four-month crackdown that began in March to crush weeks of pro-democracy protests led by the Shi’ite majority.

Yemen
A young woman and a girl were killed in Yemen during fighting between forces loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh and his opponents on Saturday, with both sides blaming the other.
The 25-year-old woman and the girl, aged 10, died after mortars hit a house in the southern city of Taiz, scene of frequent opposition demonstrations during six months of protests calling for an end to Saleh’s three-decade rule.
The state news agency SABA blamed pro-opposition gunmen for the attack, while the website of the main opposition party said the Republican Guard, headed by a son of Saleh, was behind the shelling.
Saleh’s tenacity has frustrated protesters who thought his time was up when he flew to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment last month following an assassination attempt, leaving impoverished Yemen in political limbo.
Four Yemeni suspects have been arrested in connection with a car-bomb attack in the southern port of Aden that killed a British businessman on Wednesday, security officials said on Saturday.
The four suspects lived in the Moalla neighbourhood where the attack took place, the security officials said, without ruling out further arrests.
Reports in Britain said the man killed, David Mockett, was in his 60s and a marine surveyor.
An intelligence officer told AFP that the attack “carries the fingerprints of al-Qaeda.”