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Shelling of port halts deliveries to Libya's Misrata

by Reuters
Sunday, 1 May 2011 20:17 GMT

* Aid vessel forced to wait offshore

* Libyan govt says it attacked to stop arms shipments

* Rebels say battling to seize Misrata airport

By Hamid Ould Ahmed

ALGIERS, May 1 (Reuters) - Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi fired rockets at the port in Misrata on Sunday, rebels said, threatening the only lifeline for a city which has been under siege for weeks.

A rebel spokesman said shells started landing at the port area as an aid ship was trying to unload, while two other vessels bringing cargo to the city were forced by the shelling to wait offshore.

The spokesman, Ahmed Hassan, told Reuters by telephone pro-Gaddafi forces were using Russian-made Grad rockets to attack the port, which lies to the north-east of Misrata, and were also bombarding areas around it.

"Shelling the port is disastrous for us because it will sabotage all the humanitarian aid we are getting," he said. "God help us if this happens. God protect our port."

One of the ships waiting offshore for the shelling to stop was the Red Star One, chartered by the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration to evacuate hundreds of migrant workers stranded in Misrata.

Libyan state television said the port was shelled to stop NATO from delivering weapons to the insurgents.

The rebel spokesman said that was a lie. "The ships are bringing us aid and nothing but aid. We wish they were bringing weapons or that we are getting weapons because then things would have been different and better," he said.

BATTLEGROUND

Misrata, about 200 km (130 miles) east of Tripoli, has become one of the bloodiest battlegrounds in Libya's two-month old conflict between pro-Gaddafi forces and rebels trying to end his rule.

Human rights groups say hundreds of people, including many civilians, have been killed in the fighting. Officials in Tripoli deny targeting civilians, and say they are fighting armed gangs and al Qaeda sympathisers.

The renewed bombardment of the port comes two days after the Libyan government's chief spokesman said loyalist forces would stop any ships trying to enter the port without permission from Tripoli.

On the other side of the city, rebels say they have gone on the offensive and opened up a new front, attacking pro-Gaddafi forces near the airport.

This lies several kilometres (miles) to the south of Misrata and has been used by Gaddafi's forces as a base of operations.

"Fierce fighting is taking place for control of the airport," said another rebel spokesman, called Sami. "The revolutionaries (rebels) are making progress. They will manage to secure full control soon, God willing."

The rebels have grown impatient with NATO, which they say should be more aggressive in targeting loyalist units shelling the city.

"NATO aircraft flew over several times today but we heard no sound of strikes," said Sami." (Additional reporting by Mariam Karouny in Beirut, Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva and Sami Aboudi in Cairo; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.


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