Misrata suffers more bombing

Libyan government troops pounded the besieged rebel-held city of Misrata overnight, undeterred by Western threats to step up …

Libyan government troops pounded the besieged rebel-held city of Misrata overnight, undeterred by Western threats to step up military action against Muammar Gadafy forces.

Mortar fire killed at least three rebel fighters and wounded 17 in the latest attacks on Tripoli Street, rebel spokesmen said.

The United States announced this evening that it will start to use armed predator drones in Libya after President Barack Obama approved their use, defense secretary Robert Gates said.

The unmanned aircraft, already used to target militants along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, will allow for more precise attacks against Gadafy's forces, Mr Gates told a news conference.

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"He (Obama) has approved the use of armed predators," Mr Gates said.

The first two predators, which carry Hellfire missiles and can stay in the air for 24 hours, headed to Libya this evening but had to turn back due to bad weather, said General James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Mr Gates said Mr Obama continues to be opposed to sending US ground forces into Libya. There were no plans to send US trainers to augment Nato forces already working with rebel forces or to increase the American presence substantially, he added.

"There's no wiggle room in that," he said.

Misrata, Libya's third largest city, the only rebel stronghold in the west of the country, has been under a punishing siege by forces loyal to Col Gadafy for seven weeks. Hundreds of people are reported to have died.

Among the casualties yesterday were British and American photojournalists and a Ukrainian doctor. Rebels say Col Gadafy's forces, including snipers, are deliberately attacking civilians, an accusation denied by Tripoli.

Libyan state television said early today Nato forces had struck the Khallat al-Farjan area of the capital Tripoli, killing seven people and wounding 18 others.

Nato forces later hit the town of Gharyan, south of Tripoli, killing or wounding several people, it said.

Canadian Lieut-Gen Charles Bouchard, commander of Nato's Libya operations, said civilians should keep away from Col Gadafy's forces to avoid being hurt by Nato air attacks on government troops.

"More and more of Gadafy's military equipment is being used closer to civilian-populated areas and closer to buildings, which makes targeting obviously difficult," he said.

However, rebel fighters voiced frustration with an international military operation they see as too cautious. "Nato has been inefficient in Misrata. Nato has completely failed to change things on the ground," a rebel spokesman said.

France said it would send up to 10 military advisers to Libya. Britain plans to dispatch up to a dozen officers to help rebels improve organisation and communications. Neither country plans to arm or train insurgents to fight.

In Paris, French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who has spearheaded UN-backed Nato intervention, pledged stronger military action at his first meeting with the leader of the opposition Libyan National Council, Mustafa Abdel Jalil.

Among those killed in Misrata were British photojournalist Tim Hetherington, co-director of Oscar-nominated war documentary Restrepo, and American photographer Chris Hondros, killed when a group they were in came under fire.

A doctor on the Misrata medical committee said a total of 365 people had been killed, including at least 85 civilians, and 4,000 people wounded in the Mediterranean city since it came under government siege about seven weeks ago. Rebels said they were battling for control of a major road in the port of 300,000 people, which is the insurgents' last bastion in the west of the country, where war erupted in February over demands for an end to Col Gadafy's 41-year rule.

Civilians say they live in constant fear of snipers. "Mohammed and his friends were in our garage. They had gone outside to play when he had to pause to put his shoe on. In that instant the bullet hit his head," said Zeinab, mother of a 10-year-old boy who lay in a hospital bed with a bullet wound.

Misrata is running out of food and medical supplies. There are long queues for petrol, and electricity has been cut so residents depend on generators. Thousands of stranded foreign migrant workers are awaiting rescue in the port area.

Rebel spokesman Abdulrahman, reached by telephone from the western town of Zintan, said there was also fighting near Libya's western border with Tunisia.

"Clashes are currently occurring in Nalut and have been going on since Monday. The Gadafy forces are using Grad missiles and mortar rounds to attack Nalut. It's not an even battle. The rebels are not well-armed." Witnesses said rebels appeared to have taken control of the Libyan side of a border crossing near the southern Tunisian town of Dehiba, in a remote region where they have been fighting government forces. Some government troops had turned themselves over to the Tunisian military.

Evidence surfaced yesterday that Col Gadafy's government is circumventing UN sanctions to import gasoline to western Libya using intermediaries who transfer the fuel between ships in Tunisia, a source told Reuters.

Reuters