Fighting grips Misrata after Libya regime 'ultimatum'

Ten people were killed and 50 wounded after NATO air strikes in Tripoli.

MISRATA, LIBYA: Intense fighting gripped Misrata on Saturday, overwhelming its hospital with casualties after Muammar Qaddafi's regime gave its army an "ultimatum" to take the besieged Libyan city.

At least 10 people were killed and 50 wounded in the street battles that came after NATO air raids struck near a compound in the capital Tripoli where Qaddafi resides.

"Since eight o'clock this morning, we have received 10 dead and 50 wounded, which is usually the number for a full day," said Doctor Khalid Abu Salra at the main Hikma hospital in the western port city.

"We're overwhelmed, overwhelmed. We lack everything: personnel, equipment and medicines," he said.

Ambulances pulled up outside the hospital every three or four minutes, also bringing in wounded soldiers loyal to Qaddafi, as paramedics frantically wiped blood off stretchers.

Misrata has been the scene of deadly urban guerrilla fighting between pro-Qaddafi forces and outgunned rebels for more than six weeks.

Saturday's upsurge in the fight for the port city came after Qaddafi's government said it had given its army an "ultimatum" to stop the rebellion in the city, 200 kilometres east of the capital.

Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim said: "There was an ultimatum to the Libyan army: if they cannot solve the problem in Misrata, then the people from (the neighbouring towns of) Zliten, Tarhuna, Bani Walid and Tawargha will move in and they will talk to the rebels.

"If they don't surrender, then they will engage them in a fight," he told journalists.

Hamed al-Hasi, a colonel coordinating rebel fighters at the western gate of the crossroads town of Ajdabiya in the east, said the decision meant the insurgents were beginning to win the war.

"This is the first nail in the coffin of Qaddafi. This means the Libyan army is no longer capable," he told AFP.

Early on Saturday, NATO strikes hit a patch of bare ground opposite Qaddafi's Bab al-Aziziya residence in central Tripoli, and what looked like a bunker.

Authorities who took foreign correspondents there said they were "a parking lot" and "sewers."

Anti-aircraft fire rang out as ambulance sirens wailed.

Allibya television said the capital was "now the target of raids by the barbaric crusader colonialist aggressor," a term the Qaddafi regime uses for Western forces.

The official JANA news agency reported two people died in NATO raids late Friday on the Zintan region southwest of Tripoli where stepped up fighting has taken place with rebels who hold several towns.

NATO warplanes continued to overfly Tripoli on Saturday.

Kaim accused Washington of "new crimes against humanity" after US President Barack Obama authorised deployment of missile-carrying drone warplanes over Libya for what his administration called "humanitarian" reasons.

He also hit out at a senior US senator's visit to Benghazi, the rebel capital in the east, saying the Transitional National Council did not represent Libyans and had "no authority on the ground."

John McCain, a Republican senator who lost the presidential race to Obama in 2008, earlier held talks with TNC leaders, urging the international community to arm and recognise the rebel body.

Rebels bogged down in their bid to oust Qaddafi hailed the US decision to deploy armed drones over Libya.

The NATO military alliance says the unmanned drones and their precision would give the coalition forces more options, especially in urban warfare.

"The use of drones will make it easier to target Qaddafi forces in crowded urban areas. A vehicle like the Predator, that can get down lower and can get IDs, will better help us carrying out the mission with precision and care," the NATO official said.

The US military's top officer, meanwhile, said allied air strikes had destroyed 30 to 40 percent of Qaddafi's forces and noted the conflict was progressing into a stalemate.

"I am sure that NATO forces will continue to attrite the military capability of the regime forces," Admiral Michael Mullen said.

Rebels have complained civilians are being killed in places such as Misrata, where entire streets have been pulverised by gunfire, shelling and cluster bombs.

France, Italy and Britain have said they would send military personnel to eastern Libya, but only to advise the rebels on technical, logistical and organisational matters and not to engage in combat.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has signalled his intent to follow in US Senator McCain's footsteps and visit Benghazi.

On the humanitarian front, the Red Cross warned the situation in Misrata could "rapidly deteriorate further and the lack of basic services such as water, electricity, food and medical care could turn critical."

And on Saturday, an aid ship delivered 160 tonnes of food and medicine to the port city before it evacuates around 1,000 stranded refugees, mostly Nigerians.

Hundreds of Libyan families lined up along the harbour front in hope of getting on board the vessel chartered by the International Organisation for Migration, which has already transported 3,100 refugees from 21 countries out of the besieged city.

But Dakir Hussam, a Syrian electrician, expressed his delight at managing to get a place on the Red Star One after witnessing violent clashes.

"Qaddafi's men shoot at anything that moves in the city, but they are also suffering a lot," he said, referring to the burial he saw of up to a dozen loyalist fighters this week.

The UN refugee agency says about 15,000 people fled fighting in western Libya into Tunisia in the past two weeks and a much larger exodus was feared.

Massive Libyan protests in February – inspired by the revolts that toppled long-time autocrats in Egypt and Tunisia – escalated into war when Qaddafi's troops fired on demonstrators and protesters seized several eastern towns.

The battle lines have been more or less static in recent weeks, however, as NATO air strikes have helped block Qaddafi's eastward advance but failed to give the poorly organised and outgunned rebels a decisive victory.

Gambia, meanwhile, said it was joining France, Italy and Qatar in recognising the TNC as the only legitimate body representing Libyan interests, while expelling Tripoli's diplomats.