RACHEL MARTIN, host: In Libya, NATO has stepped up airstrikes on Moammar Gadhafi's military outposts in and around the capital. Until this weekend, those bombs came solely from jets flying high above the city. But yesterday, the NATO forces began using attack helicopters, lower and slower but more adept at hitting pinpoint targets.
NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson is in Tripoli, where Libyan minders keep tight control on visiting reporters. They took her and other journalists to a church near a military installation that was hit by NATO jets. Here's what she found.
SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON: NATO bombings are a familiar sound around Tripoli. Sometimes, the jets strike very close, like next to St. Mark's Church.
(SOUNDBITE OF CLOSING DOOR)
NELSON: Father Timothy is the priest here at this Coptic Orthodox Church in the southeastern suburb of Sawani Rood.
The Reverend TIMOTHY: (Foreign language spoken)
NELSON: The priest, who is Egyptian, says the bombs struck the large walled compound next door every night for nearly a week.
TIMOTHY: (Foreign language spoken)
NELSON: He points to the many broken windows he says were caused by the blasts. The priest adds the building was given to them by Gadhafi in 1972. Father Timothy says he doesn't know who the neighbors are that NATO was targeting. Others at the church are also uncomfortable answering that question, their eyes shifting nervously to the Libyan minders who've brought the journalists. The minders stop reporters who stray to the compound wall for a look.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: (Foreign language spoken)
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: (Foreign language spoken)
NELSON: Some of the people later whisper to reporters that the target was a military site. One person claims that soldiers cleared out before NATO leveled the place.
TIMOTHY: (Foreign language spoken)
NELSON: But Father Timothy says the church workers and their families who live at the church were here throughout the attacks. Among them was his daughter, 9-year-old Mora.
MORA: We sit in the bed, and I was very scared. So I was sitting beside my father.
NELSON: She says the attacks were hardest for her on the first night.
MORA: I cried the first time, but the next time, I didn't cry. I was only hiding with my father.
NELSON: Some parishioners were at the church last night when the bombing resumed. They hovered in fear next to the altar in the basement, says one parishioner, who gave his name as Dr. Emil. He says Copts in Tripoli who once numbered 5,000 have dwindled to about a hundred because of the air raids.
Dr. EMIL: No one want a war. War is a big damage. No one winning a war. So a diplomatic solution almost is an ideal solution.
NELSON: No one at the church was injured during the bombings.
TIMOTHY: (Foreign language spoken)
NELSON: Nevertheless, Father Timothy chastised NATO for repeatedly striking the neighboring compound. He says the alliance would do well to remember the areas they are hitting are filled with civilians. Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, NPR News, Tripoli. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.