TRIPOLI: Libyan ruler Moammar Qadhafi vowed to fight to the death in a defiant speech Tuesday after Nato military craft unleashed a ferocious series of some daytime airstrikes on Tripoli.

In a phone call to Libyan state television station, Qadhafi angrily denounced the rebels who rose up against him in mid-February, inspired by a wave of Arab uprisings.

''We will not kneel!'' he shouted. ''We will not surrender: we only have one choice, to the end! Death, victory, it does not matter, we are not surrendering!'' he shouted.

As he spoke, the sound of low-flying military craft could be heard whooshing through Tripoli again, and Qadhafi quickly hung up.

Minutes later, five more explosions shook the capital as Nato apparently launched another round of strikes.

Pro-Qadhafi loyalists also fired a round of gunfire into the air after his speech, which lasted about 10 minutes.

Qadhafi was last seen in television footage showing him sitting with visiting South African President Jacob Zuma in late May.

Several structures in the Qadhafi compound were badly damaged in Tuesday's strikes. Daylight Nato raids have been rare and signal an intensification of the alliance bid to drive Qadhafi from power. At least one man was killed.

Nato officials have warned for days that they were increasing the scope and intensity of their two-month campaign to oust Qadhafi after more than 40 years in power.

The alliance is assisting a four-month old rebel insurgency that has seized swaths of eastern Libya and pockets in the regime's stronghold in the west.