NATO bombs Tripoli as Gaddafi's forces pound besieged Misrata

Pro-government troops intensified the shelling of the western besieged town of Misrata even as NATO air strikes targeted the capital Tripoli while Libyan rebels today took control of a key post on the Tunisian border following intense fighting.

Amid growing concerns over a looming humanitarian disaster, civilians have been caught in the crossfire in Misrata, 214 km east of the capital Tripoli, in the face of intense pounding of the town by government troops.

Hundreds of people are reported to have been killed in the over seven weeks of attacks, with at least five civilians killed in the fighting yesterday, Al Jazeera channel said.

Two western photojournalists Chris Hondros and Tim Hetherington were among the casualties yesterday.

"Upto 50 or 60 people...are being injured per day," said Mohammed Al Fagieh, chief surgeon at a hospital in Misrata.

"I'm talking about the hospital, I'm not talking about Misurata. The number might double or triple sometimes," the pan-Arab channel quoted Fagieh as saying.

It quoted the Libyan state television as saying that NATO air strikes today targeted Tripoli, killing seven people and wounding 18 others in the Khallat al-Farjan area of the capital.

The western alliance has also captured a Libyan oil tanker, in what it described as "a barbaric piracy operation," BBC reported quoting Libya's Jana state TV.

NATO has enforced a naval blockade of Libya, following sanctions from the UN Security Council in a bid to prevent arms and mercenaries from entering the country.

In a rare advance against government troops in the west of the country, rebels took control of the Wazin crossing linking the Libyan town of Nalut to Dehiba on the Tunisian border in the remote region where Gaddafi's forces were engaged in intense fighting with the rebels.

According to witnesses, government troops abandoned their weapons and fled into Tunisia. BBC quoted witnesses as saying that dozens of Libyan soldiers had turned themselves over to the Tunisian military at the border.

It quoted Tunisia's state-run TAP news agency as saying that 13 Libyan soldiers, including a general, had turned themselves over to the Tunisian military.

In a significant development, France and Italy have joined Britain in sending military officers to Libya to train the rebels fighting to end the 41-year-rul of Gaddafi.

French President Nicholas Sarkozy promised to step up air strikes on Gaddafi's forces.

"We are indeed going to intensify the attacks and respond to this request from the (Libyan) national transition council. We will help you," Sarkozy told Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the leader of the opposition Libyan National Council in Paris yesterday.

The European military officers will help advise rebels on technical, logistical and organisational issues. In Washington, officials said that the US will give $25 million to rebels in non-lethal assistance.

Even as backing the three European countries to dispatch military advisers to help Libyan rebels, secretary of state Hillary Clinton today said US will not be sending any military personnel to the war torn North African state.

"There is a desire to help them be more organised and we support that. We're not participating in it", Clinton said asserting that Washington was preparing to grant non-lethal aid of $25 million to the Libyan opposition.

"We are moving to authorise up to $25 million in non-lethal commodities and services to support the Transitional National Council and our efforts to protect civilians," she said.

But appearing in an interview on PBS, Clinton responded with a "no" when asked if US would follow its allies UK, France and Italy to send military advisers to Libya.

The UN has said it is looking for signs of war crimes committed by the Libyan regime.

The UN rights agency said the reported use of cluster bombs by Libyan regime in Misrata "could amount to international crimes".

Navi Pillay, UN high commissioner for human rights, said there were reports of a cluster bomb exploding "just a few hundred metres from Misrata hospital, and other reports suggest at least two medical clinics have been hit by mortars or sniper fire".

The hospital in the besieged city had received more than 100 casualties yesterday, most of them civilians. The hospital said five civilians had been killed, BBC reported.

In New York UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos, however, said the situation has not yet reached the point where the UN needs NATO troops to secure humanitarian supplies in the country.

"At the moment, we have an agreement with the European force and with NATO that should we reach a point where the utilisation of civilian assets becomes impossible because of the security situation, we, the UN, would call on them for support for military assets," she was quoted as saying by Al Jazeera.

The opposition has made it clear its support for foreign ground forces in Libya to protect a safe haven for civilians.

"Protecting civilians requires having safe passages to deliver humanitarian supplies," said Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, the Benghazi-based spokesperson of Libyan Transitional National Council.

"If that [protecting civilians] does not come except through ground forces that will ensure this safe haven, then there is no harm in that at all," he said in the eastern rebel stronghold.