Drones enter Libyan conflict

LIBYA: Salvos of Grad rockets exploded and automatic weapons were fired Sunday on Misrata in an apparent contradiction of the Libyan regime's claims that troops halted operations in the besieged city.

Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim said early Sunday the army had suspended operations against rebels in Misrata, but not left the city, to enable local tribes to find a peaceful solution.

"The armed forces have not withdrawn from Misrata. They have simply suspended their operations," Kaim told a news conference in the capital.

"The tribes are determined to solve the problem within 48 hours... We believe that this battle will be settled peacefully and not militarily."

But bursts of continual automatic weapons fire could be heard as Grad rockets exploded on the city, the scene of deadly urban guerrilla fighting for weeks between rebels and forces loyal to longtime Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi.

Kaim had previously announced that the army would withdraw from Misrata and leave local tribes to resolve the conflict in the city, either by talks or through force.

On Saturday, Libya's third city suffered the worst toll in 65 days of fighting, with 28 dead and 100 wounded compared with a daily average of 11 killed, according to Doctor Khalid Abu Falra at Misrata's main private clinic.

NATO planes staged raids on civil and military sites in the Libyan capital Tripoli and other cities, JANA news agency said, without confirming the number of people killed and wounded. Earlier air raids conducted by the Western alliance struck near a compound in Tripoli where Kadhafi resides.

"A military source said civil and military sites were targeted by the colonialist aggressor," said JANA, specifying that the strikes had also covered Al-Khums, Gharian, El Assa and Sirte, the birthplace of strongman Moamer Kadhafi.

Three new explosions rocked the Libyan capital in the late evening as NATO warplanes overflew Tripoli, AFP journalists said, after several earlier blasts in the city centre and outlying quarters.

Heavy anti-aircraft and automatic arms fire were also heard in many areas of the city.

Two of the earlier explosions came from downtown Tripoli, while the rest came from areas further out, but the targeted sites could not immediately be determined.

A French journalist was shot in the neck in the eastern rebel-held city, medical sources said, noting the victim underwent an operation and was now out of danger. Friends refused to identify the journalist, but said he was a blogger who worked for "alternative media."

The United States earlier carried out its first Predator drone strike in Libya, which NATO said had destroyed one of the regime's multiple rocket launchers (MRL) allegedly used to target civilians in the rebel-held city of Misrata besieged by regime troops.

Kadhafi's regime has accused the United States of "new crimes against humanity" for deploying the low-flying, unmanned aircraft.

NATO said it had kept a "high operational tempo" of over 3,000 sorties, nearly half of them strikes, since the transatlantic military alliance assumed full control of the mission late last month.

"We have struck a broad range of targets across the country tanks and rocket launchers, armoured vehicles and ammunition stores, command and control sites," it added in a statement. An aid ship delivered 160 tonnes of food and medicine to the port city before a planned evacuation of around 1,000 stranded refugees.

Hundreds of Libyan families lined up along the harbour front in hope of getting on board the vessel chartered by the International Organisation for Migration, which has already transported 3,100 refugees from 21 countries out of the besieged city.

Misrata, Sunday, AFP