Forces loyal to Libyan ruler bombard Misrata city as HRW says it has evidence Gaddafi’s forces firing cluster bombs
Forces loyal to Libyan long-time ruler Muammar Gaddafi fired at least 100 Grad rockets into Misrata on Saturday, in a third day of heavy bombardment of the revolutionists-held city.
"They fired Grads at an industrial area this morning; at least 100 rockets were fired. No casualties are reported," revolutionists’ spokesman Abdelbasset Abu Mzereiq told Reuters by telephone.
In the east, the revolutionists’ military leader, Abdel Fattah Younes, said his forces were engaged in fierce fighting in Brega, west of Benghazi, and said he hoped he would have "good news" soon. "We have people who are positioned at the entrance to Brega, they have cleared out some snipers. We've basically cleared out Gaddaffi's forces from the eastern outskirts," fighters’ commander Jibril Mohammed Jibril said on Saturday on the fringes of Ajdabiyah, the nearest town to Brega still under rebel control.
A fighter at the entrance to Ajdabiyah said they were still being ambushed by government forces along the main highway linking the two towns. Artillery fire was heard coming from the direction of Brega, but it was unclear who was firing, he said.
CLUSTER BOMBS?!
Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch said it had evidence Gaddafi's forces were firing cluster bombs into residential areas of Misrata. It published photographs of what it said were Spanish-produced cluster bombs, which release grenades designed to explode into fragments and kill the maximum number of people.
However, a spokesman for the Libyan regime denied the accusations. "Absolutely no. We can't do this. Morally, legally we can't do this," Mussa Ibrahim told journalists. "We never do it. We challenge them to prove it."
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said a new United Nations resolution to push Gaddafi into quitting was unnecessary, and German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle suggested frozen Libyan funds be diverted to the UN to pay for aid to victims of the conflict.
