Gaddafi hiding in 'labyrinth of 600 feet underground tunnels' to avoid NATO airstrikes

Tripoli, June 12 (ANI): Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is reportedly hiding in 13 feet wide desert water tunnels, some of which are 600 feet deep, in a desperate bid to avoid being attacked by NATO airstrikes over ground. "Gaddafi has gone underground to save himself. It's just like in the Blitz when people lived in the London Underground system. He doesn't want to hang around on the surface where he can be targeted," the Daily Star quoted a senior Libyan security source, as saying. "The Paveways are being used to hit those hard-to-reach bunkers. He is relying on the earth insulating him from tracker devices. The tunnels are ideal and mean that he can stay close to Tripoli," he added. The tunnels are part of the 20 billion pounds 'Great Man-Made River Project' that Gaddafi had built in the 1980s. The tunnels, which link the desert with Tripoli, Benghazi and Sirte, are reportedly big enough to take a double-decker bus and are made of 75-ton sections of reinforced concrete pipe. Reports suggest that they were part of the largest and most expensive irrigation project in history, designed to extract water from 2,500 feet below the Sahara and transport it to towns and cities. After engineers expressed suspicion that the huge pipes would be used to hold troop camps or storing military vehicles and supplies or even poison gas, the Royal Air Force (RAF) has reportedly sent in 2,000lb Paveway bombs to target Gaddafi. (ANI)