MISRATA: Libyan rebels said they mounted successful raids on Moammar Qaddafi’s troops in the besieged western city of Misrata as loyalist forces pounded them Sunday in the eastern town of Ajdabiya.
Smoke billowed over the centre of Misrata, which a witness said was from a destroyed regime tank, as the rebels claimed to have taken out several pro-Qaddafi snipers along the port city’s main avenue.
Launching attacks from Zamora district, the rebels said they closed in on snipers based along Tripoli Street and pushed back those based further out in Misrata, their last major bastion in the west of Libya.
In the country’s east, Qaddafi’s better-armed loyalist forces on Sunday pounded rebels at the western gate of the key crossroads town of Ajdabiya with heavy artillery, an AFP correspondent said.
On Saturday at least eight people were killed and 27 wounded in fighting west of Ajdabiya as rocket fire by Qaddafi loyalists struck rebel positions between the eastern town and nearby Brega, hospital officials said.
It was not immediately clear if there were casualties from Sunday’s artillery rounds, which indicated that Qaddafi forces had inched closer to the town.
The ragtag rebel fighters had previously appeard set to move on Brega, with some correspondents reporting that they were on the outskirts of the strategic oil town which lies 80 kilometres (50 miles) west of Ajdabiya.
On the diplomatic front, the New York Times reported US President Barack Obama’s administration has launched an intense search for a country, likely in Africa, that could provide refuge to Qaddafi.
But amid looming indictments against Qaddafi by the International Criminal Court in the Hague for the atrocities committed against his own people during the ongoing conflict and for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103, US officials only have a narrow list of potential host countries.
On Saturday, France said a new UN resolution to push Qaddafi into quitting was unnecessary, and Germany suggested frozen Libyan funds be diverted to the United Nations to pay for aid to victims of the conflict.
US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) had said its researchers reported the use of internationally banned cluster munitions against Misrata.
But a spokesman for the Libyan regime denied the accusations.
"Absolutely no. We can’t do this. Morally, legally we can’t do this," Mussa Ibrahim told journalists. "We never do it. We challenge them to prove it."
Cluster bombs explode in the air and scatter deadly, armour-piercing submunitions over a wide area.
Hazam Abu Zaid, a Misrata resident who has taken up arms to defend his neighbourhood, said the bomblets fell from the sky "like rain" overnight between Friday and Saturday.
A New York Times team first reported the use of the cluster munitions, photographing MAT-120 mortar rounds it said were produced in Spain.
"It’s appalling that Libya is using this weapon, especially in a residential area," said Steve Goose, HRW’s arms division director.
"They pose a huge risk to civilians, both during attacks because of their indiscriminate nature and afterwards because of the still-dangerous unexploded duds scattered about."
On Saturday, loud explosions rocked Misrata and, in the east, heavy fighting was reported as rebel fighters, bolstered by NATO air strikes, pushed on from Ajdabiya towards Brega.
Six people were killed and 31 wounded in Misrata on Saturday, a similar number to Friday’s casualty figures.
In Ajdabiya, another six died and 20 were wounded.
Even farther west, NATO air strikes targeted Qaddafi’s hometown of Sirte for a second day, state news agency JANA reported, without giving details.
The agency later reported air strikes on the Al-Hira region, 50 kilometres (30 miles) southwest of Tripoli.
The blasts in Misrata were accompanied by bursts of gunfire heard from the city centre, after NATO flyovers and possible air raids were followed by a lull in shelling and shooting, an AFP correspondent said.
The city’s dairy was bombed around dawn and remained ablaze by mid-afternoon.
"They are trying to starve us to death, attacking the dairy, the water purification plant," said Jiraal, a Libyan who had returned from England to join the rebels.
A doctor in Misrata said rebels had destroyed two tanks with recoilless rifles, while capturing and burning two more — because they did not know how to drive them.
In Paris, aid organisation Doctors Without Borders said it had evacuated 99 people, including 64 war-wounded, by boat from Misrata on Friday to Tunisia.
Speaking of the dire conditions in the city, under siege for weeks, MSF doctor Morten Rostrup noted health structures were struggling to cope with the heavy inflow of patients.
"With the latest heavy bombardments in Misrata, the situation is worsening, as hospitals have to discharge patients before their treatment is completed in order to treat the new wounded from fighting," he added.
Tens of thousands of migrants have already fled Libya since the rebellion erupted in mid-February.
Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Saturday a new UN resolution to push Qaddafi into quitting was unnecessary.
"We think that given his behaviour, his savage repression of the population, Qaddafi has lost all legitimacy to stay in power," Juppe said.
"That is the view of the United States, of Great Britain, of the 27 member states of the European Union, of the Arab League, and there is no need for a new Security Council resolution to enact this principle."
German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle has suggested frozen Libyan funds should be diverted to the United Nations to pay for aid to victims of the conflict.
The weekly Der Spiegel quoted an internal note from Bruederle’s ministry as saying Germany had frozen $6 billion (4.1 billion euros) of assets belonging to Qaddafi or the Libyan state in line with UN sanctions.
In Berlin, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov appealed for an immediate ceasefire and for the warring parties to be brought to the negotiating table.
UN Security Council Resolution 1973 calls for a ceasefire, but Qaddafi has relentlessly pursued his campaign to retake territory lost to the rebels.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen denied the air strikes were beyond the scope of the UN resolution.
"I have to stress that in the conduct of that operation, we do not go beyond the text or the spirit" of the resolution, he said.
Meanwhile, the European Union and NATO deepened their coordination for a potential EU military mission to deliver urgent humanitarian aid to Misrata, diplomats said.
The International Organisation for Migration said about 1,200 migrants have been evacuated from Misrata to the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi. Most were Bangladeshis and Egyptians.
