West strikes deep in Libya

re-entering the western town of Misrata and besieging its main hospital.
Air strikes destroyed government tanks on the outskirts of rebel-held Misrata, but other tanks inside the city were not hit, a resident said, underlining the difficulty of the UN backed military misssion to protect Libyans from Muammar Gaddafi.
The continued violence has strained the international coalition set up to try to stop Gaddafi’s assault on rebels seeking an end to his rule, with a growing list of countries wary of attacks on ground troops that could kill civilians.
NATO members were still trying to resolve differences over the command and aims of the campaign while Western forces, having taken out Libyan air defences, moved deeper into Libya and on to other strategic targets.
The French airforce struck a Libyan air base before sunrise Thursday, a military spokesman told a media conference according to Xinhua.
The overnight strikes targeted a base about 250km south of the Libyan coastline, French general staff spokesman Thierry Burkhard said.
The air raids were conducted by Rafale and Mirage 2000-D fighter jets, he said, but didn’t give a specific location of the air base. He also refused to disclose the damage inflicted on the air base, saying it was confidential.
France was the initiator of the international military intervention in Libya and claims to have destroyed more than 10 armoured vehicles belonging to Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said early Thursday morning the coalition operation would continue but it wouldn’t last long.
“A necessary period” could be days or weeks longer, but not months, Juppe said in a interview with a local radio station. Gaddafi’s tanks rolled back into Misrata under the cover of darkness and shelled the area near the hospital, which was also under fire from government snipers, residents and rebels said.
“The situation is very serious,” a doctor in the western town said by telephone before the line was cut off.
A resident called Abdelbasset said around 6 000 workers and family members from Egypt and other African countries were stuck in the port, under the eye of two Libyan warships which moved in on Wednesday. “They haven’t attacked but if they do, the thousands of workers will be the first victims,” he said. Clashes between rebels and besieging forces continued yesterday in the eastern frontline town of Ajdabiyah, said Abu Musab, who left the town by car with his family of 10.
“There is no water, no power and the bombing is random. Everyone has left,” he said, adding that Gaddafi’s forces were positioned to the east, west and south of the town.
“There are revolutionaries in the town and there is fighting going on right now.”
France said it had hit an air base in central Libya early yesterday, the fifth night of Western air strikes, and had also hit a government plane after it landed at Misrata airport. Al Arabiya television said coalition planes struck Sabha, a Gaddafi stronghold in southern Libya.
A Libyan official said fuel storage tanks and a telecommunications tower in Tripoli were among places hit by what state television called “colonialist crusaders”.
A target in the Tajoura district which a resident said was a military area was also hit twice yesterday.
Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim said strikes had hit military and civilian compounds in the central Jufrah region and other targets in Tripoli, Misrata and south of Benghazi in the east, home to a emerging alternative government.
Libyan officials took Reuters journalists to a Tripoli hospital to see 18 male corpses, some charred beyond recognition, saying they were military personnel and civilians killed by Western bombing overnight.
It was the first time foreign repor-ters had been shown alleged victims of the air strikes and it was not possible to verify how many were civilians.
Libya says dozens have been killed; Western forces deny any have been killed in the strikes.
International aid organisations said they were struggling to deliver humanitarian aid supplies to areas most affected by fighting, but have managed a few low-profile shipments.
“We are hearing very worrying reports coming out from cities like Ajdabiyah and Misrata . . . ” said Simon Brooks, who heads the International Committee of the Red Cross mission in Libya.
The US says it has successfully established a no-fly zone over the Libyan coast, begun attacking tanks and now wants to hand leadership of the mission to NATO. – AFP-Reuters-Xinhua.