Libyan revolutionists said they mounted successful raids on Moamer Gaddafi’s troops in the besieged western city of Misrata as loyalist forces pounded them Sunday in the eastern town of Ajdabiya

Libyan revolutionists said they mounted successful raids on Moamer Gaddafi's troops in the besieged western city of Misrata as loyalist forces pounded them Sunday in the eastern town of Ajdabiya.
  
Smoke billowed over the centre of Misrata, which a witness said was from a destroyed regime tank, as the rebels claimed to have taken out several pro-Gaddafi snipers along the port city's main avenue.
  
Launching attacks from Zamora district, the rebels said they closed in on snipers based along Tripoli Street and pushed back those based further out in Misrata, their last major bastion in the west of Libya.
 
In the country's east, Gaddafi's better-armed loyalist forces on Sunday pounded rebels at the western gate of the key crossroads town of Ajdabiya with heavy artillery, an AFP correspondent said.
  
On Saturday at least eight people were martyred and 27 wounded in fighting west of Ajdabiya as rocket fire by Gaddafi loyalists struck rebel positions between the eastern town and nearby Brega, hospital officials said.

On the diplomatic front, the New York Times reported US President Barack Obama's administration has launched an intense search for a country, likely in Africa, that could provide refuge to Gaddafi. But amid looming indictments against Gaddafi by the International Criminal Court in the Hague for the atrocities committed against his own people during the ongoing conflict and for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103, US officials only have a narrow list of potential host countries.

CLUSTER BOMBS USED
  
US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) had said its researchers reported the use of internationally banned cluster munitions against Misrata. But a spokesman for the Libyan regime denied the accusations.

Hazam Abu Zaid, a Misrata resident who has taken up arms to defend his neighbourhood, said the bomblets fell from the sky "like rain" overnight between Friday and Saturday.
  
A New York Times team first reported the use of the cluster munitions, photographing MAT-120 mortar rounds it said were produced in Spain

On Saturday, loud explosions rocked Misrata and, in the east, heavy fighting was reported as rebel fighters, bolstered by NATO air strikes, pushed on from Ajdabiya towards Brega. Six people were killed and 31 wounded in Misrata on Saturday, a similar number to Friday's casualty figures. In Ajdabiya, another six died and 20 were wounded.