Forces loyal to long-time ruler Muammar Gaddafi fight gun battle with Tunisian troops in frontier town of Dehiba

Forces loyal to Libyan long-time ruler Muammar Gaddafi fought a gun battle with Tunisian troops in the frontier town of Dehiba on Friday as Libya's conflict spilled over its borders.

Reuters reported that pro-Gaddafi forces shelled Dehiba town, damaging buildings and wounding at least one resident, and a squad drove into the town in a truck chasing anti-Gaddafi fighters.

Tunisia summoned Libya's ambassador to protest against the incursions, as Tunisian deputy foreign minister Radhouane Nouicer said casualties had been inflicted, including a young girl. "We summoned the Libyan envoy and gave him a strong protest because we won't tolerate any repetition of such violations," he told Al-Jazeera Television. "Tunisian soil is a red line and no one is allowed to breach it," he said.

The Libyan troops were chasing revolutionists who fled from the Western Mountains region into Tunisia in the past few days after Gaddafi forces overran a border post they had earlier seized.

Two residents told Reuters that shells had fallen on the town from pro-Gaddafi positions across the border. "Rounds from the bombardment are falling on houses. A Tunisian woman was injured," one resident, called Ali, told Reuters by telephone. He said later the fighting and shelling had stopped. "The Tunisian army is combing the town. We have no idea about the fate of Gaddafi's forces there because the Tunisian army closed the gates to the town and nobody is allowed to enter."

While Dehiba was under fire, the revolutionists, who are fighting to end more than four decades of Gaddafi rule, announced they had recaptured the border post.

Friday's clashes marked the first time that government ground forces had crossed the border and entered a Tunisian town.

Residents said a crowd of local people gathered in Dehiba on Friday morning to try to prevent pro-Gaddafi forces from entering the town. Tunisian soldiers fired in the air to disperse them and urged the demonstrators to seek shelter from the shelling inside their homes.

Inside Libya, NATO air strikes hit Gaddafi troops attacking revolutionists-held Zintan, a spokesman said from there. State news agency Jana confirmed the attacks, saying "the crusader colonial aggression" had hit civilian and military sites.

In the revolutionists’ stronghold Benghazi, a doctor said shelling by Gaddafi's forces in the besieged city of Misrata killed 12 people on Thursday, including two women. He said the dead were victims of rocket and mortar fire.