Gaddafi Emerges Unbroken From Tripoli Attack

TRIPOLI — Shortly after sunrise, Muammar Gaddafi emerged from a concrete stairwell in a pressed uniform, carrying a dented radio and asking why breakfast had been delayed. The appearance ended hours of speculation following an attack that rattled windows across the capital and left official spokesmen competing to deliver the most confident description of events.

Witnesses said the sky flashed three times before the city fell briefly silent. Minutes later, loudspeakers broadcast music through the central districts while municipal crews swept glass from the roads and repainted a wall that had acquired what one official called an unauthorised crack.

“They attacked the night, but the morning reported for duty on our side.”

A carefully staged sunrise

Gaddafi spoke for less than ten minutes from the steps of a government building. He displayed the damaged radio as proof that the attack had failed, though aides declined to explain how the appliance became strategically significant. A crowd answered each sentence with cheers timed so precisely that foreign reporters checked their watches.

Officials reported limited structural damage and no interruption to state broadcasting. The national television service devoted the morning to repeated footage of the stairwell, the radio and a pot of tea that had reportedly remained warm throughout the bombardment.

The capital resumes its rhythm

By midday, shops reopened and traffic returned to its normal argument with itself. The government declared the episode a strategic victory, the opposition called the declaration premature, and residents queued for bread beneath a new banner reading: Tripoli bends only to pick up what its enemies dropped.