Gaddafi forces advance on Libya’s Misrata-rebels

yesterday, shelling it from three sides in attacks that killed at least 12 rebels, a rebel spokesman said.
There was no immediate comment from Gaddafi’s government.
“Misrata is under heavy shelling . . . Gaddafi forces are shelling Misrata from three sides: east, west and south,” rebel spokesman Hassan al-Misrati told Reuters from inside the town.
“He has sent thousands of troops from all sides and they are trying to enter the city. They are still outside, though.”
He added that 12 rebels had been killed and 26 wounded.
The offensive followed a lull in NATO bombing of Tripoli yesterday, 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 Gaddafi.
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.
But with officials like British Foreign Secretary William Hague talking explicitly of Gaddafi being forced out, critics say NATO has gone beyond its UN mandate to protect civilians.
Western powers are lining up behind the rebels. Spain yesterday said it had recognised their National Transitional Council as the country’s only representative.
“I’m here today to confirm that the National Transitional Council is the only legitimate representative of the Libyan people,” Spanish Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez told reporters in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi yesterday.
Rebel spokesman Abdulrahman said from Zintan that Gaddafi’s forces had also shelled the western town yesterday morning, after massing large numbers of troops towards it.
“They are now using anti-aircraft weapons,” he said.
Gaddafi’s troops and the rebels have been deadlocked for weeks, with neither side able to hold territory on a road between Ajdabiyah in the east, which Gaddafi’s forces shelled on Monday, and the Gaddafi-held oil town of Brega further west. Rebels control the east of Libya, the western city of Misrata and the range of western mountains near the border with Tunisia.
They have been unable to advance on the capital against Gaddafi’s better-equipped forces. – Reuters