European and American unleashed warplanes against Libya

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Libyans pray over the coffins of two anti-Kadhafi fighters, drapped in the rebellion's flag, during the Friday prayer in the eastern Libyan port of Benghazi on April 15, 2011. The leaders of Britain, France and the United States said a Libyan future including Moamer Kadhafi is 'unthinkable', as Russia charged Friday that NATO was exceeding its UN mandate in Libya.​

 

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Libyan protesters wave their country's old national flag, which has been adopted by the anti-Kadhafi rebellion, during a mass rally following the Friday noon prayer in the rebel-held port of Benghazi on April 15, 2011.​

 

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Libyan rebel supporters march while demanding the end of longtime Libyan ruler Moammar Gaddafi's rule April 15, 2011 in Benghazi, Libya.​

 

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Ali Salem el-Faizani, 10, stands at a street corner while working as a traffic cop April 15, 2011 in Benghazi, Libya. Schools have been closed throughout eastern Libya for nearly two months due to the ongoing civil conflict; some children like Ali are working to pass the time, in his case finding a job via a Boy Scout-like youth troop that's affiliated with the Benghazi traffic police.''I like directing the cars around,' Ali says.​

 

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A youth sells hats, flags, and other souvenirs in the colors of the opposition flag to those gathering for Friday prayers in the square next to the courthouse on the corniche in Benghazi, Libya Friday, April 15, 2011. President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy wrote in a joint newspaper opinion piece Friday that while their mandate under a U.N. Security Council resolution does not include removing Gadhafi by force, "it is impossible to imagine a future for Libya with Gadhafi in power."​

 

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A Doctor (L) glances at 10 year old Mohammed (R) in a bed at the Hekma hospital in Misrata on April 17, 2011 after he was hit by shrapnel in his head while playing near the front line in Tripoli street.
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Fierce fighting in key city in west Libya kills 17
By BEN HUBBARD, Associated Press


AJDABIYA, Libya – Holding out under a rain of shelling and sniper fire, Libyan rebels fought Moammar Gadhafi's forces Sunday in close-quarters battles in the city center of Misrata, the last major rebel foothold in western Libya. Seventeen people were killed, an NGO worker and an opposition activist said.
Government troops have been laying siege to the city on Libya's Mediterranean coast for weeks, prompting repeated international warnings of a dire humanitarian situation as well as calls for NATO forces to intensify airstrikes on Gadhafi's forces there.
On Sunday, government troops, who have pushed into the city center from the outskirts in recent days, pounded Misrata with mortar rounds and rocket-propelled grenades, said resident Abdel-Salam, who only provided his given name for fear of retribution.

"Residents have become so accustomed to the sound of mortars and missiles," he said. "Snipers are still on the roofs of tall buildings shooting at anything that moves in the city center."
Rebels fought government forces back from an area around a central produce market, regaining a small sliver of territory, said Rida al-Montasser, a local activist reached by Skype.
He said a hospital report that he received from a doctor, showed 17 people, including rebels, were killed and 74 others were injured. He said Gadhafi forces had fired at the city's hospital Sunday.

A worker for a foreign NGO who visited the hospital Sunday also said 17 bodies were brought in, including that of a girl shot in the head. Other children who had been shot were among the wounded, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he feared for his safety.

Explosions thundered late into the night, al-Montasser said.

The NATO-led air campaign authorized by the U.N. to protect civilians and enforce a no-fly zone has failed to stop government shelling that, according to residents and witnesses, has hit Misrata's hospital, the port and residential areas.

The international airstrikes have kept rebels from being defeated on the battlefield by the better trained and equipped government forces, but it still has not been enough to turn the tide in the war. In the eastern half of Libya, rebels in control of most of that part of the country since the uprising began on Feb. 15 have been unable to advance westward toward the capital.
In Paris, French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet dismissed statements from a top NATO official that the alliance is short of aircraft. Longuet said instead that NATO's mission in Libya is hampered by a lack of ground information.
"There is no lack of planes but a lack of identification of mobile objectives," he said in an interview published Sunday in the daily Le Parisien. "The problem is that we're missing concrete and verifiable information on identified objectives on the ground."

Longuet said that "coalition aviation is capable of breaking all logistical provisions of Gadhafi's troops" to the east. But he acknowledged that in urban combat, "if the aviation avoids tragedies, it still isn't solving the problem."

After a meeting of NATO foreign ministers last week in Berlin, the alliance's secretary-general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said NATO needed "a small number of precision aircraft" to hit Gadhafi's forces.

"I'm hopeful that nations will step up to the plate," he said, noting that the two-day Berlin meeting was not held to solicit new pledges of support.
The need for the additional aircraft comes as the situation has changed on the ground, Fogh Rasmussen said.
In eastern Libya on Sunday, government forces shelled the eastern edge of Ajdabiya, the front-line rebel town that has been the scene of fierce fighting in recent weeks.

Loud booms rocked the city throughout the morning, sending a column of cars — some with rebel fighters, others with families — fleeing north through a thick sandstorm to more securely held rebel territory.
Rebel forces fired back with rockets and no government forces entered the city, said rebel fighter Awad Sathi.

The Libyan government has come under sharp international criticism for its assault on Misrata and has been accused by human rights groups of using heavy weapons, including shells, missiles and cluster bombs. Such bombs can cause indiscriminate casualties and have been banned by many countries.

In Tripoli, Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim denied the allegations Sunday, telling a small gathering of foreign diplomats: "Don't believe the lies."

Maj. Gen. Saleh Ibrahim denied Libyan forces have used cluster bombs, saying the army did not have such weapons and that Libyan soldiers had not been trained in their use.
On Sunday, spokesman Ibrahim said NATO is taking sides in the conflict and renewed claims that fighters from the al-Qaida terror network have joined the rebels.
"NATO is supporting the rebels, allowing them to advance against our army, providing them with air cover," he said. "It knows about the arming of rebels by the Qatari government and is allowing that. NATO knows about al-Qaida activities in Benghazi, Darna and Beyda. It knows that al-Qaida fighters are advancing westbound."

 

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Doctor Abdul Kadher Mukhtar tend to sniper victims at the Hekma hospital in Misrata on April 17, 2011. Hospital staff told AFP that they continue to admit a high number of sniper victims from the besieged west Libyan city's frontline.​

 

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Libyan rebels fortifiy their positions at Ajdabiya's western gate after rebels re-controled the area, on April 17, 2011. Libyan regime forces pounded rebels with heavy artillery west of Ajdabiya, forcing hundreds of residents and some fighters to flee the key crossroads town, as a refugee rescue operation in Misrata was under way.​

 

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A Libyan rebel stands near a rocket launcher in the western gate of Ajdabiya after rebels re-controlled the area following heavy fighting against forces loyal to Libya's strongman Moamer Kadhafi, on April 17, 2011​

 

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Libyan General Salah Omar Abdullah speaks during a news conference about the situation in Misrata in Tripoli April 16, 2011.

A crater said to be caused by coalition air strikes according to the Libyan government is seen at an area in Sbeia eastern of Tripoli April 17, 2011​

 

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A truck mounted anti-aircraft gun deployed on the outskirts of Tripoli is readied for action by Libyan Army soldiers, Libya, Sunday, April 17, 2011.
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Libyan Army Maj. Gen. Saleh Abdullah Ibrahim gestures during a press conference in Tripoli, Libya, Saturday, April 16, 2011. In the background is a map of the Libyan coastal town of Misrata, still in rebel hands, where Gadhafi's troops have intensified their long siege of the city in recent days.​

 

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A vendor sells fish to customers at a central market in Tripoli April 16, 2011.​

 

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A Libyan rebel drives a pickup truck past a bombed-out dairy production facility in Misrata, 120 kms (75 miles) east of Tripoli, on April 18, 2011. Misrata, in western Libya, has been under attack by Moamer Kadhafi's forces with several hundred people killed there, according to rights groups and doctors in the city.​

 

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A rebel fighter looks through a scope near the frontline along the western entrance of Ajdabiyah April 18, 2011. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's forces fired rockets on Sunday at rebels stationed along the edge of Ajdabiyah, sending some residents fleeing from the eastern town, witnesses said.​

 

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Foreign workers as well as Libyan citizens line up at the entrance to the port trying to leave the besieged city of Misrata April 18, 2011 in Misrata, Libya. Thousands of foreign workers and Libyans alike are trying to leave war-torn Misrata, as fighting continued between Libyan government forces and anti-government rebels. The Libyan government has come under international criticism for using heavy weapons and artillery in its assault on Misrata, which can cause civilian casualties.​

 

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Foreign workers from Nigeria, Ghana, and other African countries pile in the back of a truck with their belongings trying to leave the besieged city of Misrata April 18, 2011 as the sun sets on the port in Misrata, Libya.​

 

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Three-year-old Heba, who was found with part of her intestine hanging out of a stomach wound apparently caused by a cluster bomb over her home, lies in a hospital bed next to her grandmother Salim Abdullah, on April 18, 2011, in Misrata, 120 kms (75 miles) east of Tripoli. The administrator of the main hospital in Misrata, Doctor Khaled Abu Falgha, said in all, 1,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the fighting that broke out in Misrata nearly six weeks ago, while another 3,000 people have been wounded.​

 

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A Libyan rebel takes cover behind a destroyed military vehicle during heavy clashes with fighters loyal to Moamer Kadhafi in Tripoli street in central of Misrata, 120 kms (75 miles) east of Tripoli, on April 18, 2011.

A Libyan rebel celebrates in relief after crossing Tripoli street (R), a hub of heavy clashes with Moamer Kadhafi loyalist fighters..​