Shelling by forces loyal to Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi killed 11 people and wounded dozens more — the majority civilians — around the besieged rebel enclave of Misrata on Tuesday, insurgents said.
“Eleven people were killed and 57 wounded, almost all of them civilians,” a rebel source told Agence France-Presse by telephone from Misrata, 200km east of Tripoli.
The attacks marked another bloody milestone for a city that has been shelled almost continuously since March.
While rebel forces and Nato bombing have cleared Gaddafi troops from Misrata, the allies have failed to push loyalist forces beyond striking distance of the city.
As projectiles rained down from the air, on the ground skirmishes continued. Sources said five rebels were killed in fighting at the western entrance to the city earlier in the day.
Across the Gulf of Sirte, on the eastern front line, a rebel representative said nine Gaddafi soldiers were captured between Ajdabiya and Brega.
Yet despite the activity there was little sign of an anti-Gaddafi offensive toward Tripoli, which a rebel colonel had predicted would come by Monday.
French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet cautioned against the rebels’ chances of defeating Gaddafi and pushing toward the capital.
They have a “growing capacity to organise politically and militarily” but are “currently not in a stabilised, centralised system”, he said.
But, he added, the rebels were no longer in need of controversial French weapons drops.
“There is emerging a political order distinct from that of Tripoli,” Longuet said. “The [rebel] territories are organising their autonomy … That is why the parachute drops are no longer necessary.”
Amid the uneasy military stalemate, diplomatic chatter continued about a possible negotiated solution to the conflict although no proposal appears to have gained much traction so far.
Gaddafi is sounding out the possibility of handing over power, a Russian newspaper reported on Tuesday, but the Libyan government denied it was in talks about the veteran leader stepping down.
Five months into a conflict that has embroiled Nato and become the bloodiest of the “Arab Spring” uprisings, there has been a flurry of reports about talks on Gaddafi ending his four decades in power in exchange for security guarantees.
Russia’s respected Kommersant newspaper based its story on a high-level source in Moscow. The report was denied in Tripoli, and Italy said it believed talk of a deal was a ruse by Gaddafi’s administration to sow confusion. – Reuters