BANI WALID/SIRTE, Libya - Libyan interim government forces licked their wounds on Saturday after a failed assault on the town of Bani Walid, and a spokesman for Muammar Gaddafi accused NATO of killing 354 people in overnight air strikes on the city of Sirte.
An anti-Gaddafi fighter fires a multiple-rocket launcher near Sirte, the hometown of deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi, September 17, 2011. (REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic)
Moussa Ibrahim, the deposed leader's spokesman, contacted Reuters by satellite telephone to say Gaddafi was still in Libya, leading the "resistance" against his foes.
He said NATO air strikes on Sirte, Gaddafi's birthplace, had hit a residential building and a hotel, killing 354 people.