On Monday, NATO bombs hit a building in Qaddafi’s official residence in Tripoli, in what the Libyan government maintained was an assassination attempt. NATO has denied it is trying to kill the Libyan leader.

“There was talk about a no-fly zone. OK. But where’s the no-fly zone if every night they’re bombing palaces where Qaddafi lives?” Putin said during a visit to Denmark.

“They say, ‘No, we don’t want to destroy him.’ Then why bomb the palaces? Is that how they drive out the mice?” The commander of NATO’s operation, Canadian Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard, said Tuesday the attack on the presidential complex in Tripoli was aimed at an army command center and denied it was an attempt to kill Qaddafi.

Bouchard said the complex is “a military compound in which there are various houses and residences ... and various military command and control nodes throughout.” Putin said the nations taking part in the NATO-led operation were straying from the UN mandate to enforce a no-fly zone and protect civilians.

“Now several officials are saying, ‘Yes, we’re trying to destroy Qaddafi.’ But who allowed you to do this? What, there was a trial? Who gave themselves the right to sentence someone to death, regardless what kind of person he is?” Putin said.

He didn’t specify which officials or countries he was referring to.

Russia abstained in the UN Security Council (UNCSC) vote last month authorizing the military operation in Libya. At the time Putin compared the UN resolution to “a call for a crusade.”

On Tuesday, Russia said it will not support any UNSC resolutions on Libya which could escalate the conflict in the North African nation.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying that Russia would not support any resolution that would deepen civil war in Libya. Russia is a veto-wielding permanent member of the Security Council.
 

Following Putin's remarks,  Qaddafi's government urged Russia to call an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss what it termed Western aggression, Libyan state news agency Jana reported.

“Libya asked Russia officially today to request the convention of an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council,” Jana said.

It said the meeting would be to discuss “the immoderate colonial and Crusader aggression which has been hitting Libyan civilian targets and has attempted to target leader Muammar Qaddafi in breach of two Security Council resolutions and of international agreements.”

It did not say whether Russia had responded to the request.

Libya's foreign minister also said the Qaddafi regime wants a meeting of heads of state convened by the African Union to discuss ways of dealing with Western air strikes.

“My delegation proposes the holding as soon as possible of an extraordinary session of the Assembly of the Union, to identify the ways that enable our continent to mobilize capabilities to face the external forces which aggress against us,” Abdelati Obeidi told a gathering of the AU’s Peace and Security Council.