Libyan regime forces laying siege to Misurata intensified their assault on the lifeline port yesterday as smoke billowed from a fuel depot bombing, attacks a rights group said may amount to an atrocity.
Two loud explosions were also heard in Tripoli, where the regime of embattled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has its headquarters, as jets flew overhead, witnesses said.
Italian coast guards and local fisherman, meanwhile, saved all 500 refugees on a boat from Libya.
In Misurata, fighting broke out in the resort area of Burgueya, west of the make-or-break city in the Libyan conflict lying about 200 kilometres east of the capital.
A thick plume of smoke spread over Misurata from blazing fuel depots bombed a day earlier, while long queues could be seen at fuel stations amid fears of shortages, an AFP correspondent said.
Forces loyal to Colonel Gaddafi “destroyed the only tanks that were full,” said Ahmad Monthasser, a rebel from Misurata.
Libyan rebels warned that residents of Misurata could run out of food and water within a month if they are not provided with “game-changing” weapons to defeat Col Gaddafi’s forces.
Because of shelling of the port over the past two weeks, only one aid ship a week is now reaching Misurata, spokesman Saddoun el-Misurati told reporters in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.
Government troops have stepped up their attacks on the port of Misurata, the main source of supplies to rebels fighting to oust the veteran strongman in western Libya.
Misurata is seen as the key to the Libyan conflict, which broke out in mid-February after Col Gaddafi’s security forces waged a bloody crackdown on protests inspired by regime-changing movements in Tunisia and Egypt.
Rebels in Misurata have been fearing for days that Col Gaddafi’s forces will mount a new ground assault on the city.
And last Saturday, the Gaddafi regime unleashed a salvo of Grad rockets on towns in Libya’s western mountains near the border with Tunisia as it bombed Misurata’s fuel depots.
At least nine rebels were killed and 50 wounded in fierce clashes in the northwestern town of Zintan as Gaddafi forces pressed the insurgents on several fronts.
A barrage of shells had also struck Wazin, a western town near the border with Tunisia, forcing thousands to flee, while loyalist fighters also attacked the southern oasis towns of Ojla and Jalo, which neighbour oil facilities.
The day before, Col Gaddafi’s forces dropped mines into Misurata’s harbour using small helicopters bearing the Red Cross and Red Crescent emblems, the rebels said.
Amnesty International’s senior adviser Donatella Rovera lashed out at the Gaddafi regime, saying the mines do not “distinguish between civilian and military vehicles.”
“Such systematic targeting of Misurata’s only conduit for humanitarian supplies and for the evacuation of critically ill and wounded patients is nothing short of collective punishment against the city’s population,” she said in a statement.
“Those in the Libyan regime up and down the chain of command must be aware that who are responsible for indiscriminate attacks and collective punishment may one day have to answer to charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
Abdul Hafiz Ghoga, vice-chairman of the opposition National Transitional Council said it was Col Gaddafi’s growing desperation behind such “firepower on the people” following economic and political pressure from world powers.
World powers have promised $250 million (€175 million) in humanitarian aid to the rebels and said the Gaddafi regime’s frozen overseas assets, estimated at $60 billion, would be used later to assist the Libyan opposition.
The economic situation in rebel-held areas, including Benghazi, is steadily worsening, with costs of basic commodities skyrocketing and the rebel administration facing shortage of funds as receipts from oil exports have come to a virtual halt.
Two loud explosions rocked a western sector of Tripoli yesterday afternoon as jets flew overhead, witnesses said.
An international coalition began carrying out strikes on Gaddafi forces on March 19, under a United Nations mandate to protect civilians in the country. Nato took command of operations over Libya on March 31.
Yesterdayday’s explosions came a week after the regime said Seif al-Arab Gaddafi, one of col Gaddafi’s sons, and three of his grandchildren were killed in a Nato air strike on a compound in Tripoli.