World News Engine: Gaddafi forces attack key port of Misrata

Gaddafi forces attack key port of Misrata

Muammar Gaddafi's forces attacked the key port in the besieged Libyan city of Misrata with rockets on Tuesday, wounding refugees and forcing a humanitarian ship to stay out to sea.

Several Grad rockets hit the port 12 kilometres east of the city and an International Organisation for Migration (IOM) ship that had come to rescue refugees stood offshore as a precaution, an AFP journalist said.

The attack came after a lull in fighting as rebels in Misrata said they pushed forces loyal to Gaddafi out of the city, although the Libyan strongman remained defiant despite NATO bombing h
is compound.

In Misrata, the rebels' last bastion in western Libya 215 kilometres from Tripoli, Doctor Khalid Abu Falra at the city's main hospital said "several refugees were wounded by the bombardment."

He added that "there may be deaths - we have no details for the moment," as NATO warplanes overflew the rebel-held city where explosions were also heard after a 24-hour period of relative calm.

"NATO asked that the IOM boat leave the port," said a rebel source, adding that "around 20 vehicles" containing Gaddafi loyalists were approaching.

In Benghazi, the opposition Transitional National Council said the rebels still controlled Misrata despite being surrounded and bombed by Gaddafi's forces.

"The situation in Misrata remains grave. The revolutionaries are in control but they remain surrounded and bombed," TNC spokesman Jalal al-Gallal told AFP.

Misrata remains besieged by Gaddafi's troops to the east, south and west, with its only access to the outside world by sea. The airport, which has been badly damaged, is in the hands of regime forces, according to the rebels.

The port has therefore been a strategic conduit for international humanitarian aid, as well as rebel fighter reinforcements and guns and ammunition from their main eastern stronghold of Benghazi.

Rebels in the city said they had pushed Gaddafi's troops out after a siege lasting more than seven weeks, but opposition officials in Benghazi have downplayed the reports.

"There may be some soldiers hiding in the city, afraid of being killed, but there are no groups of soldiers left," one rebel in Misrata said.

The claim was greeted sceptically in Benghazi with TNC military spokesman Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani dismissing reports of progress in Misrata.

"It is a disaster there," he said. "Gaddafi is not going anywhere. Misrata is the key to Tripoli. If he lets go of Misrata, he will let go of Tripoli. He is not crazy enough to do that."

Gaddafi remains defiant despite NATO bombing his Tripoli compound and military materiel, including in his birthplace of Sirte.

"The leader is working from Tripoli. The leader is well, is very healthy, is leading the battle for peace and democracy in Libya," regime spokesman Mussa Ibrahim said outside the bombed building at Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziya residence.

"The leader is in a safe place. He is leading a battle... he works every day. He led the battle to provide people with services, with food, medicine, fuel," Ibrahim told a news conference in the presence of several ambassadors on Monday.

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