Gaddafi’s forces bombard Misrata

Muammar Gaddafi, a rebel spokesman said, a day after rebels celebrated a government pullback.
Captured government troops said they had been ordered to retreat from the coastal city after a siege of nearly two months, and rebels fighting to overthrow Gaddafi had claimed victory there on Saturday.
“The situation is very dangerous,” rebel spokesman Abdelsalam said by telephone from Misrata.
“Gaddafi’s brigades started random bombardment in the early hours of this morning. The bombardment is still going on. They targeted the city centre, mainly Tripoli Street, and three residential areas.”
He gave no indication of casualties. Hundreds have been killed in the fighting for Misrata, the only major rebel-held city in western Libya. In the rebels’ eastern stronghold Benghazi, a rebel military spokesman said he was sceptical about the pullout from Misrata by Gaddafi’s forces. “I don’t think this is a real withdrawal,” spokesman Ahmed Bani told Reuters.
He suggested government loyalists may be trying to stoke tensions between Misrata and neighbouring towns, and that Gaddafi’s troops might return to Misrata later under the guise of intervening to protect local tribes from the rebels.
“Gaddafi wants to make it seem like this isn’t a problem between the people and him, but a problem between the people and the tribes. This is a dream,” he said.
Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim said on Friday that the army would “leave it to the tribes and the people around Misrata to deal with the situation whether by using force or using negotiations.” British Foreign Secretary William Hague also said he doubted Gaddafi’s forces were really going to withdraw.
“This may be cover for using more insurgent type warfare without any uniforms and without tanks. So it does not mean the Gaddafi regime has pulled out of Misrata,” he told the BBC.
Britain and France have been leading air strikes against Gaddafi’s forces in an operation mandated by the UN Security Council on March 17 to protect civilians in Libya. The United States has also deployed Predator drones, using the unmanned plane for the first time on Saturday to attack the site of a multiple rocket launcher near Misrata. – Reuters.