From her father's compound, struck by U.S. bombs exactly 25 years ago, Moammar Gadhafi's daughter sent a defiant message early Friday, April 15: Libya was not defeated by airstrikes then and won't be defeated now, she told a cheering crowd.
The daughter, Aisha, pumped her right fist as she led the audience in late-night chants from the second-floor balcony of the badly damaged Bab Aziziyah compound, targeted by U.S. warplanes in 1986. "Leave our skies with your bombs," she said, referring to NATO airstrikes that had struck Tripoli just hours earlier, according to AP.
Gadhafi, in power for 42 years, has been testing the international community's resolve on the battle field. On Thursday, his forces shelled the besieged western Libyan town of Misrata, where rebels are clinging to positions near the port area, their only link to the outside world.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told NATO Foreign Ministers meeting in Berlin on Thursday that Gadhafi is taunting the alliance by continuing to strike cities held by the rebels seeking his overthrow.
"As our mission continues, maintaining our resolve and unity only grows more important," Clinton said.
NATO members agree that Gadhafi has to go to end the crisis in Libya, but made clear they are not the ones to oust him.