Italy reported on Friday that Muammar Gaddafi 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 about Gaddafi from the bishop of Tripoli, Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli, Reuters reports.
"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."
NATO allies, including the United States, Britain and France, are bombing Libya as part of a U.N. mandate to protect civilians and they say they will not stop until the Libyan leader's 41-year rule ends.
