Muammar Gaddafi’s forces killed at least 20 rebels and civilians when they bombarded Libya’s western Misurata region yesterday, the rebels said as intense Nato-led strikes sent up plumes of smoke in Tripoli.
The latest flare-up in fighting came as US Defence Secretary Robert Gates warned the Western alliance’s air war on the Libyan strongman’s forces could be in peril due to military shortcomings.
A day after Libya’s rebels won a cash boost and crucial recognition from key powers, a rebel said Col Gaddafi’s forces fired Grad rockets, heavy artillery and tank shells at Dafina, on the outskirts of the city of Misurata.
“Twenty people, both civilians and rebels, were killed and more than 80 wounded,” in the bombarded sector 35 kilometres (22 miles) from Misurata city centre, he said.
“The rebels succeeded in repelling an attack on this sector,” the rebel said, and spoke of “dead and wounded among the Gaddafi forces.”
Misurata, a lifeline port city some 200 kilometres east of Tripoli, is the rebels’ most significant enclave in western Libya.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s special envoy Mikhail Margelov, meanwhile, said he was preparing to visit Tripoli to find a solution to the conflict after meeting the opposition in their Benghazi stronghold.
The surge of support for the rebels battling to oust Col Gaddafi came at a meeting on Thursday in Abu Dhabi of the International Contact Group on Libya, during which key powers agreed to unlock a billion dollars for their coffers.
At the meeting, the United States joined Australia and Spain in recognising the rebels National Transitional Council (NTC) as the legitimate representative of the Libyan people, piling more pressure on Gaddafi to step down.
The Misurata bombardment came as two loud blasts were heard in the centre of the Libyan capital at about 3 p.m., coming from the eastern suburbs of Tajura and Ain Zara, residents told AFP.
Three powerful explosions shook the city centre at around midnight. Other more distant blasts followed.
Tripoli has over the past two days been targeted by the most intense Nato air raids since the international military campaign was launched on March 19 under a UN mandate to protect Libyan civilians.
Nato, in a daily military update, said among the Tripoli targets attacked on Thursday were command and control facilities, an early warning radar and a surface-to-air missile launcher.
Alliance officials said that Nato has been scrambling warplanes against Col Gaddafi’s forces after Libyans commented on troop movements on websites like Twitter and Facebook, following verification by more traditional methods.
“We will take information from every source we can,” said British Wing Commander Mike Bracken, the Libya operation’s military spokesman. “We get information from open sources on the Internet, we get Twitter.”
US Defence Secretary Gates warned, however, that military shortcomings among Nato members could jeopardise the air war in Libya.
With half of the countries in the 28-member alliance not participating in the Libya campaign, Mr Gates said it reflected a worrisome lack of military assets.
“Frankly, many of those allies sitting on the sidelines do so not because they do not want to participate, but simply because they cannot. The military capabilities simply aren’t there,” Mr Gates said in a speech. However, Oslo, which has contributed six F-16 fighters, announced on Friday it will first reduce its participation before withdrawing from air operations on August 1.
Mr Gates said many allies lacked intelligence and surveillance aircraft and specialists, which meant the US military had to step in to ensure allied warplanes could identify and strike targets.
“Furthermore, the mightiest military alliance in history is only 11 weeks into an operation against a poorly armed regime in a sparsely populated country – yet many allies are beginning to run short of munitions, requiring the US, once more, to make up the difference,” he said.