’The coalition bombardment had killed civilians in port areas and at Sirte airport and had hit the southern town of Sebha’

Anti-aircraft fire and explosions reverberated across Tripoli for a third night on Monday and state television said several sites had come under attack in the capital as forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi attempt to stop any new attack from an international military coalition.

Western powers had no immediate confirmation they had launched fresh strikes on Tripoli in a campaign to target Libyan air defenses and enforce a no-fly zone.

Gunfire and anti-aircraft fire lit up the sky late on Monday in and around the capital. Two naval installations just outside the city, thought to include Abu Sitr Naval Base, had reportedly been hit in the strikes.

Mussa Ibrahim, a government spokesman, told a news conference that the coalition bombardment had killed civilians in port areas and at Sirte airport and had hit the southern town of Sebha, a bastion of Gaddafi's tribe.

Meanwhile, international coalition forces reportedly struck radar installations at two air defense bases belonging to Gaddafi's forces in Benghazi in eastern Libya.
A U.S. Air Force F-15E fighter crashed in Libya overnight and one crewmember has been safely rescued and the other is "in the process of recovery," a spokesman for the U.S. military's Africa Command said on Tuesday.

The developments came as the UN Security Council rejected a Libyan request for an emergency meeting to halt what it called "military aggression" by coalition forces three days after they began launching strikes aimed at disabling Libyan air defenses.

The council decided instead to hold a briefing already planned for Thursday to give a briefing on the coalition air campaign to UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon.

Despite the air strikes, forces loyal to Gaddafi continue to fight on and have reportedly made gains in the west.

Libyan government spokesman Ibrahim said Misurata, Libya's third-largest city 211km east of Tripoli, was "liberated three days ago" and that Gaddafi's forces were hunting "terrorist elements".

But a spokesman for opposition fighters in the city told the AFP news agency that the opposition remained in control despite an onslaught by Gaddafi loyalists, who he said opened fire with tanks and set snipers on roofs to gun down people in the streets.

"Casualties fell in their dozens," after snipers and a tank "fired on demonstrators", the spokesman said. A medic in Misurata said 40 people had been martyred and at least 300 had been wounded.

Gaddafi forces also reportedly bombarded the western town of Zintan, in the Nafusa Mountain range, for several hours before noon.

There was also fierce fighting further east in Ajdabiya. Opposition fighters were seen retreating in the face of an attack by government forces.