{"id":402945,"date":"2011-04-27T20:17:48","date_gmt":"2011-04-27T20:17:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/04\/27\/fighting-continues-in-libyas-misurata\/"},"modified":"2011-04-27T20:17:48","modified_gmt":"2011-04-27T20:17:48","slug":"fighting-continues-in-libyas-misurata","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/27\/fighting-continues-in-libyas-misurata\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighting continues in Libya&#8217;s Misurata"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<table border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" bordercolor=\"#FFFFFF\">\n<tbody readability=\"1.5\">\n<tr>\n<td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr readability=\"3\">\n<td align=\"center\"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><strong>The western\u00a0city of Misurata\u00a0has\u00a0borne the brunt of\u00a0bombardment by Gaddafi&#8217;s forces\u00a0for almost six weeks<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Pro-democracy fighters are battling Muammar Gaddafi&#8217;s, the Libyan leader,\u00a0forces on the\u00a0country&#8217;s western border, while fighting continues in the besieged rebel-held city of Misurata.<\/p>\n<p>A rebel spokesman told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that heavy shelling had\u00a0prevented ships from docking in\u00a0Misurata to deliver humanitarian supplies and evacuate the wounded.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The attacks have prevented a number of ships seeking to enter the port to evacuate the wounded from Misurata,&#8221; Ahmed Hassan, the spokesman,\u00a0said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Other ships are also waiting to unload shipments from humanitarian agencies.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The rebels said\u00a0the Libyan army had withdrawn from central Misurata but that\u00a0fierce fighting\u00a0was still ongoing\u00a0for control of the\u00a0city&#8217;s port.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Gaddafi&#8217;s forces retreated from the port area where they were positioned yesterday after air strikes<br \/>by the NATO forces,&#8221; an opposition spokesman, called Reda, told the Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The strikes completely destroyed 37 military vehicles.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Gaddafi&#8217;s forces this morning started bombarding an area about 10km north of the city. It is known as the Steel area.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The bombardment is still going on. They are using Grad missiles &#8230; Warplanes are flying over Misurata&#8217;s outskirts but I don&#8217;t hear any sound of strikes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Heavy bombardment<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>While government forces pulled out of\u00a0Misurata over the weekend under pressure from NATO air attacks, they have since unleashed a heavy bombardment on what is Libya&#8217;s third-largest city.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Another development which is rather disturbing is that there has been shelling in the docks area, which is the lifeline to opposition forces and indeed the civilian population here,&#8221; Al Jazeera&#8217;s Andrew Simmons reported from Misurata on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<table border=\"0\">\n<tbody readability=\"2.5\">\n<tr readability=\"7.5\">\n<td readability=\"8\">\n<p><span><strong><br \/><span>US Senator John McCain, who recently visited Benghazi, advocates the use of air power in Libya [ Al Jazeera]<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>&#8220;Reports from an opposition spokesperson say pro-Gaddafi troops are intent to cut the main road from city to the port.\u00a0If the lifeline is cut, then everyone is in a desperate situation.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Though Gaddafi troops have left the city, everybody is under threat of shellfire. The whole city centre has been destroyed and needs to be rebuilt.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>With fears of a military stalemate looming, John McCain, the most prominent American\u00a0politician to visit Libya since the start of the conflict, has called for the use of more air power to prevent a humanitarian crisis in Libya.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If you are really in this to prevent a humanitarian disaster, the only way you can prevent it is to have Gaddafi not able to inflict it,&#8221;\u00a0he told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n<p>The senator&#8217;s comments came amid reports that thousands of migrant workers have been left stranded in Misurata, waiting for relief organisations to ship them to safety.<\/p>\n<p>One ship sent to evacuate\u00a01,000 migrants from the city docked on Wednesday in the port\u00a0after spending a night offshore awaiting a lull in shelling,\u00a0a Swiss aid agency said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Caught in the\u00a0crossfire<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>International Organisation for Migration (IOM), based in Geneva, said\u00a0at least one migrant from Niger was reported killed and up to 20 others wounded in the bombardment of Misurata a day earlier.<\/p>\n<p>At least 1,500 migrants, most from sub-Saharan Africa including Niger and Chad, have gathered at the port about\u00a010km to 12km east of the city awaiting rescue,\u00a0IOM\u00a0said.<\/p>\n<p>It said tens of thousands of migrants have fled the conflict in Libya into northern Niger and Chad, and are in need of urgent support.<\/p>\n<p>Against this backdrop of rising casualties and civilian suffering, the Obama administration has eased its sanctions against Libya to allow for the sale of oil controlled by the rebels.<\/p>\n<p>The move will allow Libya&#8217;s opposition forces to use the income from oil sales to buy weapons and other supplies.<\/p>\n<p>The US has also ordered the expenditure of up to $25m in surplus government goods to support Libyan opposition groups and protect civilians threatened by Gaddafi forces.<\/p>\n<p>Italy and France have\u00a0called on the international community to stop shipping oil products to the Libyan government and urged market operators not to buy its crude oil.<\/p>\n<p>Libya, in turn, has urged Russia to call an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss what it called &#8220;Western aggression&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"cphBody_lblCountBody\"\/><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>Read More:<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/english.aljazeera.net\/news\/africa\/2011\/04\/2011427174152820654.html\" title=\"Fighting continues in Libya's Misurata\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fighting continues in Libya&#8217;s Misurata<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> The western\u00a0city of Misurata\u00a0has\u00a0borne the brunt of\u00a0bombardment by Gaddafi&#8217;s forces\u00a0for almost six weeks Pro-democracy fighters are battling Muammar Gaddafi&#8217;s, the Libyan leader,\u00a0forces on the\u00a0country&#8217;s western border, while fighting continues in the besieged rebel-held city of Misurata. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":402946,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-402945","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-local-news"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - 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