More airstrikes shake Tripoli as refugees drown fleeing Libya

Rebels on the frontline in Misrata where aid ships have finally reached the wartorn Libyan city.

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) — New NATO airstrikes shook Tripoli on Tuesday after the alliance’s secretary-general dismissed complaints that the allied campaign against longtime Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi had fallen into a stalemate.

Meanwhile, an international migration organization said a boat packed with hundreds of refugees trying to flee from Tripoli capsized Friday. Somalia’s ambassador to Libya said Tuesday at least 54 Somalis are dead or feared dead.

On the outskirts of al-Brega, a key oil town in the east, three rebels have died in clashes with Gadhafi forces since Monday, according to rebel spokesman Mostafa Bozen and a rebel fighter on the front lines, who spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity for safety reasons. Rebels have made multiple unsuccessful attempts to enter the town, the sources said.

The first shipment of nonlethal aid from the United States to the Libyan opposition arrived Tuesday in Benghazi, U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said. It included more than 10,000 MREs — meals ready to eat — that are halal, permissible under Islamic law. Other items are en route including medical supplies, tents, uniforms, boots, and personal protective gear — all from the U.S. Defense Department.

U.S. officials are coordinating with the opposition Transitional National Council “to determine what additional assistance requirements we might be able to support in the coming weeks,” Toner said.

At least three rounds of explosions echoed across Tripoli, Libya’s capital, in a three-hour span that began late Monday and stretched into Tuesday, and the roar of jets could be heard overhead.

Government spokesman Musa Ibrahim told CNN that warplanes hit administrative buildings in central Tripoli, and that a nearby hospital was “indirectly” affected.

Ibrahim said the strikes followed “an extended period of calm.”

“It is very sad,” he said. “We are losing people every day on both sides. We think it is time to sit down and talk.”

NATO warplanes and missiles have been pounding Gadhafi’s resources since March in an attempt to protect civilians as Gadhafi’s troops try to quash a nearly three-month-old revolt against his regime. Libyan rebels are demanding freedom and an end to Gadhafi’s almost 42-year-rule.

The ongoing crisis in Libya has prompted thousands to flee or try to flee, with some attempts ending in tragedy.

Somalia’s ambassador to Libya, Abdelghani Mohamed Oweys, said the boat that capsized Friday was carrying more than 600 asylum seekers from various Arab and African nationalities, including 240 Somalis.

Laura Boldrini, spokeswoman for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Italy, said 16 bodies had been pulled out of the water from the Tripoli harbor. The total number of casualties is unknown.

“From what refugees are telling us, the Libyan authorities are facilitating the departures of non-Libyan citizens from Libyan coasts,” Boldrini said. “Refugees are not considered at all as humans. Trips are organized on unlikely vessels, and they leave Libya without considering the weather forecast.”

Since the end of March, two vessels departing from Libya have disappeared — one carrying 320 people and the other 160, Boldrini said. In addition, “We know of a shipwreck on April 4, where 250 people died,” Boldrini said.

An aid ship chartered by the International Committee of the Red Cross reached the war-torn port city of Misrata on Tuesday, the organization said in a statement. Witnesses in Misrata, which is held by rebels, have said indiscriminate shelling on the city has left victims with crushed bones, burns and amputations.

The ICRC is bringing medical supplies, spare parts to repair water and electrical supply systems, and 8,000 jars of baby food, the statement said.

The situation in Misrata “is at the forefront” of U.N. concerns about Libya’s civilian population, Valerie Amos, the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, told the Security Council on Monday. Two months of fighting and the ongoing shelling of the city’s port had prevented aid ships from docking there, and between 150 and 300 non-Libyans were still waiting to be evacuated, she said.

“Some people are running short of food, water and other basics,” she said. “Medical facilities need supplies and more trained personnel.”

Almost 750,000 people have fled the country, another 58,000 are displaced within Libya, and another 5,000 are stranded at border crossings between Libya, Tunisia and Niger, Amos said.

For those who remain, Amos said, the fighting and sanctions imposed on Gadhafi and his allies have caused “a severe disruption of supply lines within the country.” The results have been “shortages of fuel, difficulties in obtaining commodities including foodstuffs, medicines and other essential goods, and there have been severe cash shortages throughout the country.”

Amos said western Libya has about three months’ supply of food remaining, and the mostly rebel-held east has about two months. Fuel and supplies for desalinization plants and other facilities that provide fresh water to many Libyans are running out, she added.

Amnesty International has said Gadhafi’s attacks in the port city may amount to war crimes.

A report issued last week by the monitoring group accused pro-Gadhafi forces of the “unlawful killing of civilians due to indiscriminate attacks, including use of heavy artillery, rockets and cluster bombs in civilian areas and sniper fire against residents.”

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told CNN on Monday that Gadhafi and his regime “have no future,” but refused to predict how long the Libyan leader could hold on.

Rasmussen denied that the situation in Libya had devolved into a “stalemate,” insisting that NATO was “making progress” and had “taken out” a substantial part of Gadhafi’s military capability. He said a political solution was required to bring the conflict to an end, but “it’s hard to imagine an end to the violence as long as Gadhafi remains in power.”

CNN’s Nima Elbagir, Jomana Karadsheh, Antonia Mortensen, Sara Sidner and Amir Ahmed and journalist Livia Borghese contributed to this report.