20110512
presstv
Libyan state TV has showed footage of Muammar Gaddafi meeting officials in Tripoli, dampening mounting speculations that the embattled ruler was injured in an April airstrike.



The 68-year-old Libyan Gaddafi, who had kept a low profile since the April 30 strike on his Bab al-Aziziyah compound in the capital Tripoli, looked healthy in his trademark brown robe, dark sunglasses and black hat, Reuters reported on Thursday.

Gaddafi's youngest son, Saif al-Arab Gaddafi, and three of his grandchildren were killed in the NATO's aerial strike that the government labeled as a direct attempt to assassinate the Libyan ruler.

The video, which was aired late on Wednesday, showed Gaddafi in a meeting with a group of Libyan tribal leaders from the eastern part of the country in a Tripoli hotel. The footage did not specify the date of the meeting and was only a few minutes long.

"We tell the world: 'those are the representatives of the Libyan tribes,'" Gaddafi said in the meeting, as he pointed to the dignitaries and then introduced some of them.The footage also showed an old man telling Gaddafi that "You will be victorious."

Earlier on Wednesday, Libyan revolutionary forces seized control of the airport in the western city of Misratah after heavy fighting with pro-Gaddafi forces.

Misratah has been under siege by Gaddafi forces for nearly two months with regime forces repeatedly bombing and shelling the city, which has a population of more than half a million, many of whom still grappling with shortages of food, water and medical supplies.

The US and NATO have unleashed a punishing UN-mandated offensive against Gaddafi to force him to cede power, but the Libyan ruler has shown scant signs of abandoning his 41-year-old reign.