Forces of Embattled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi renewed shelling around the western city of Misrata, leaving scores killed and other dozens wounded.
Forces of Embattled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi renewed shelling around the western city of Misrata, leaving at least 22 people killed and other 60 wounded.
Witnesses and doctors at Hikma hospital in the city reported that tanks, artillery and incendiary rockets bombarded opposition positions at Dafniya, about 30 km west of Misrata.
The latest death toll was reported by the BBC channel, while al-Jazeera said that 31 people were reported killed, quoting a doctor at Hikma hospital.
Misrata has been the scene of some of the heaviest fighting of the Libyan unrest. It endured 70 days of siege by pro-Gaddafi forces until NATO air raids broke the siege three weeks ago, enabling the rebels to break out.
Also on Friday, Gaddafi's forces shelled the town of Gadamis, 600km south-west of Tripoli, for the first time since the start of the uprising in February, an opposition spokesman told Reuters news agency.
Meanwhile, Ahmed Bani, a military spokesman in Benghazi, told the Reuters news agency that clashes had broken out in Zlitan on Thursday and resumed on Friday with Gaddafi forces. Al-Jazeera reported that 22 fighters were killed in clashes.
Zlitan is one of three towns that are under government control between Misrata and the capital and if it were to fall, could act as a stepping stone to allow the anti-Gaddafi uprising to spread from Misrata, the biggest rebel outpost in western Libya, to Gaddafi's stronghold in Tripoli.
TURKISH MEDIATION ROLE
On the other hand, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his government had offered to help send Gaddafi "wherever he wants to go", but had so far received no response from the Libyan authorities, AFP news agency reported.
"We said we will help you leave for where ever you would like."
"Gaddafi has no way out but to leave Libya, through the guarantees given to him, it seems."
Erdogan added, "We ourselves have offered him this guarantee, via the representatives we've sent. We told him we would help him to be sent wherever he wanted to be sent. We would discuss the issue with our allies, according to the response we receive."
However, he added that Turkey had received no response from Gaddafi regarding the deal.
However he said: "I have contacted him six or seven times. I sent our special representatives, but we always faced stalling tactics. They tell us they want a cease fire, we tell them to take a step, but the next day you find out that some places were bombed."
