Fighting waned Tuesday in Misrata as rebels said they pushed Moamer Gaddafi ‘s troops out of the besieged city, but the Libyan leader stayed defiant despite NATO bombing his compound.
Russia, meanwhile, said it would not back a new UN Security Council resolution on further intervention in Libya, as Italy and France called on the international community to stop shipping oil products to Gaddafi ‘s regime. NATO offered details of bombing raids on several targets near Misrata, Gaddafi ‘s hometown of Sirte and Tripoli, including the strongman’s compound in the capital and missile launchers. There appeared to be a lull in fighting in Misrata, with no explosions heard during the night after rockets and artillery shells had fallen sporadically late Monday, AFP reporters and medics said. Rebels in the port city, the rebels’ last bastion in western Libya 215 kilometres (132 miles) from Tripoli, said they had pushed Gaddafi ‘s troops out after a siege lasting more than seven weeks. “There may be some soldiers hiding in the city, afraid of being killed, but there are no groups of soldiers left,” one rebel said. Rockets and mortars had rained down on Misrata overnight Sunday-Monday, killing at least a dozen people and wounding 20, according to figures provided by sources at the city’s hospitals. Doctor Khalid Abu Falra at Misrata’s main private clinic said on Tuesday another two bodies had been brought to his facility of people killed overnight by mortar shells near the eastern outskirts of the city. In Mujamaa Tibi hospital, Mohamed al-Fajieh described unusually severe wounds and corpses reduced to little more than ashes. There were “completely charred corpses, some of them so badly burned that we aren’t sure they are human bodies,” he told AFP. “This is the first time we’ve seen such burns.” Sources said those caught up in the violence were all civilians — including young children. Rebel leader Taher Bashaga said: “It will take some time, I think, but then it will all go well and Misrata will be free for ever, God willing.” But Gaddafi remained defiant despite NATO bombing his Tripoli compound and military equipment, including some in his birthplace Sirte.
