Coalition strikes at heart of Gaddafi regime

They had come to express their solidarity with their leader. Young men chanted rhythmic slogans of support; women said they loved Muammar Gaddafi; old men said he was their brother and their father.

They had come to show that if he was to die, they were ready to die with him.

There seemed no doubting their sincerity. But how representative are they?

We cannot know what is in the minds of the hundreds of thousands of Tripoli citizens who do not join these spontaneous demonstrations of devotion. The true sentiment of Tripoli, in the current atmosphere, is unknowable.

How many of those thousands were still there when the missile struck last night? Were any of them harmed?

The government says 300 had stayed and that they were camped just 50-100m (160-330 feet) from the building that was struck – proof, to the regime here, that it is the coalition bombardment that is the real threat to civilian lives.

It is a message that will resonate here, especially as Tripoli buries the dead in its cemeteries, and as Col Gaddafi’s much depleted forces prepare to face an increasingly confident rebel force in the east.

It is also a message that could yet divide world opinion, and undermine the international support that the coalition has, until now, enjoyed.