TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi stepped up their onslaught on rebel areas of Libya’s Western Mountains late yesterday, rebels said, and refugees said towns in the isolated region were on the brink of starvation.
At least 10 Grad rockets landed on the town of Zintan, rebel spokesman Abdulrahman told Reuters by telephone. “They were fired by Gaddafi forces positioned north of Zintan,” he said.
Berber towns in the remote Western Mountains, close to the border with Tunisia, have been pounded by government forces after joining the rebellion against Gaddafi that erupted two months ago.
“If I had stayed there my two little daughters would have been among the dead,” Fatma Douri, 35, who has fled the besieged town of Yafran, said in a refugee camp in the Tunisian border town of Dehiba.
“The siege of the town absolutely has to be lifted, otherwise thousands of children are going to be among the dead in the next few weeks.”
Like anti-Gaddafi groups in other parts of Libya, rebels in the Western Mountains want more help from Western warplanes. Asked if NATO air strikes on pro-Gaddafi forces around Zintan had been effective, Abdulrahman said:
“No. They are better than no strikes at all but they could do much better. The targets are clear. If rebel fighters can see them, surely NATO aircraft are able to spot and destroy them.”
Further east, a rebel spokesman in the besieged coastal city of Misrata said fighting took place yesterday near the city’s airport, which remains under the control of Gaddafi forces.
NATO minesweepers searched the approaches of Misrata harbour on Monday for a drifting mine blocking aid supplies.
A NATO statement said the alliance had destroyed two of three mines laid by government forces. It said the mines were small and hard to detect but capable of doing serious damage.
The International Organisation for Migration said an aid ship was still waiting off the coast of Misrata for bombing to stop and mines to be cleared before it tried to deliver supplies and evacuate some 1,000 foreigners and wounded Libyans.
A Misrata resident and rebel sympathiser named Ghassan told Reuters that hospital records showed, 110 civilians and rebels had been killed in the besieged city since April 24, and more than 350 wounded.
Crowds chanting support for Gaddafi gathered in Tripoli yesterday for the funeral of his 29-year-old son Saif al-Arab. The government says a NATO air raid on Saturday killed him and three of Gaddafi’s young grandchildren.
The announcement of the deaths triggered attacks by angry crowds on the British and French embassies and the US diplomatic mission in Tripoli, and accusations from the Libyan officials that NATO had been trying to assassinate Gaddafi.
