Libya denies report Qadhafi may be Wounded

Italy said on Friday Muammar Qadhafi has very likely left the Libyan capital and probably been wounded by Nato air strikes, a report that Tripoli immediately dismissed as "nonsense". Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said he heard the report on Qadhafi from the bishop of Tripoli, Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli.
"I tend to give credence to the comment of the bishop of Tripoli, Monsignor Martinelli, who has been in close contact over recent weeks, when he told us that Qadhafi is very probably outside Tripoli and is probably also wounded. We don't know where or how," Frattini said.
Nato allies including the United States, Britain and France are bombing Libya as part of a UN mandate to protect civilians and they say they will not stop until the Libyan leader's 41-year rule ends. Qadhafi faces a three-month-old uprising by rebels who control Benghazi and the oil-producing east of the country. The government accuses the rebels of being armed criminals and supporters of al Qaeda and says Nato air strikes are an act of colonial aggression.
There was no independent confirmation of Frattini's report. The Libyan government poured scorn on it. "It's nonsense," Libyan government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim said in Tripoli. "The leader is in high morale. He's in good spirits. He is leading the country day by day. He hasn't been harmed at all."
The insurgents were to meet senior White House officials in Washington on Friday to seek cash and diplomatic legitimacy in their battle. Rebels are also making a plea for funds they say will help them cling on to besieged positions on the ground. Libyan state television said a Nato strike on the eastern city of Brega on Friday killed at least 16 civilians and wounded up to 40. It showed footage of at least nine bodies with multiple wounds, wrapped in blankets at an unknown location. A Nato official in Naples said they did not have any information on the report. Missile strikes by Qadhafi forces stationed in positions around the rebel-held city of Misrata killed 10 and injured 20, a doctor said.