MISURATA – Thousands of troops loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gadafy advanced on the rebel-held western city of Misurata yesterday, shelling it from three sides in attacks that killed at least 12 rebels, a rebel spokesman said.
The offensive followed a lull in Nato bombing of Tripoli after 24 hours of some of the heaviest bombardments of the Libyan capital since air strikes began in March.
Nato defence ministers met in Brussels yesterday, but there were few signs of willingness to intensify their Libya mission, which has so far failed to oust Gadafy as leader of the oil-producing North African desert state.
The alliance says the bombing aims to protect civilians from the Libyan leader’s military, which crushed popular protests against his rule in February, leaving many dead. The conflict has now become a civil war.
“Misurata is under heavy shelling . . . Gadafy forces are shelling Misurata from three sides: east, west and south,” rebel spokesman Hassan al-Misrati said from inside the besieged town.
“He has sent thousands of troops from all sides and they are trying to enter the city. They are still outside, though.”
Doctors at the Hekmah hospital in central Misurata told Reuters correspondents who visited it that at least 11 people had been killed and 35 wounded, many seriously.
There was no immediate comment from Gadafy’s government.
With officials such as British foreign secretary William Hague talking explicitly of Gadafy being forced out, critics say Nato has gone beyond its UN mandate to protect civilians.
Rebel spokesman Kalefa Ali in the western mountain town of Nalut said the towns of Yafran and Kalaa, which fell to rebels earlier this week, had been shelled by Gadafy forces. “Rebels fear that Gadafy’s forces will launch a wide-scale offensive in the western mountains as he is doing in Misurata today,” said Mr Ali.
Nato sought broader support for the bombing campaign yesterday, given that its air power has been stretched by the latest strikes on Tripoli. “We want to see increased urgency in some quarters in terms of Libya,” British defence minister Liam Fox said.
But some Nato allies not taking part in the bombing said they would not alter their stance, and Sweden, a non-Nato participant, said it would scale down its role.
Of the 28 Nato allies, only eight, led by Britain and France, have been conducting air strikes on Gadafy’s forces, and a senior US official warned this week that fatigue was beginning to set in among the aircrews.
Nato allies agree Gadafy must go, but not all view military intervention as the best way to achieve this. Germany, which opposed the intervention, said it understood the pressures on Britain and France but would not change its position. Spain said it would not join the mission, despite now recognising the rebels as Libya’s representatives.
As bombs fell on Tuesday, Gadafy vowed to fight to the end. “We only have one choice: we will stay in our land dead or alive,” he said in a fiery audio address on state television.
Gadafy says the rebels are a minority of Islamist militants and the Nato campaign is an attempt to grab Libya’s oil. – (Reuters)