"According to the information we have there are three dead and 150 wounded," he told journalists on a bus taking them to a hospital shortly after the strikes.

Ibrahim said NATO had carried out "between 12 and 18 raids on a barracks of the people's guard", volunteer units who back up the army.

Most of the victims were civilians living nearby, the spokesman added.

At around 1:00 am (2300 GMT Monday) five powerful blasts were heard in the sector around leader Moamer Kadhafi's Bab al-Aziziya residence, preceded by a whistling noise and the formation of red balls in the sky, a witness said.

Half an hour, later strikes were continuing, with the sound of warplanes roaring overhead and about 15 explosions.

It was the most intense raid since the start of NATO operations against Kadhafi's regime.

The Bab Al-Aziziya sector has already been targeted several times by NATO aircraft.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011