Air attacks drive Gaddafi forces back
International airstrikes forced Muammar Gaddafi's tanks back from the western city of Misrata today, giving civilians who endured more than a week of attacks a respite.
Western diplomats neared an agreement to let Nato assume responsibility for the no-fly zone and its warships began patrolling off Libya's Mediterranean coast.
A doctor in Misrata, 125 miles south-east of Tripoli, said tanks fled after the airstrikes began around midnight.
He said the planes struck the aviation academy and spare ground outside the central hospital.
"There were very loud explosions. It was hard to see the planes," he said. "Today, for the first time in a week, the bakeries opened their doors."
He said the situation was still dangerous, with pro-Gaddafi snipers shooting at people from rooftops.
"Some of the tanks were hit and others fled," he said. "We fear the tanks that fled will return if the airstrikes stop."
The withdrawal of the tanks from Misrata was a rare success for the rebels. The disorganised opposition holds much of the east but has struggled to take advantage of the gains from the international air campaign, which appears to have hobbled Gaddafi's air defences and artillery just as the rebels were facing defeat.
Neither side has mustered the force for an outright victory, raising concerns of a prolonged conflict in the cities were they are locked in combat, such as Misrata and Zintan in the west and Ajdabiya, a city of 140,000 that is the gateway to the east.
In Zintan, a resident said Gaddafi's forces were at the base of a nearby mountain and were shelling in that area, but rebels forced their retreat from all but one side of the city. After five days of fighting, resident Ali al-Azhari said, rebel fighters captured or destroyed several tanks, and seized trucks loaded with 1,200 Grad missiles and fuel tanks. They captured five Gaddafi troops.
Al-Azhari said one officer told rebels he had order "to turn Zintan to a desert to be smashed and flattened."
Resentment against Gaddafi runs high in Zintan, a city of 100,000 about 75 miles south of Tripoli, because it was the hometown of many of the detained army officers who took part in a failed coup in 1993.
Pro-Gaddafi troops who have besieged Ajdabiya attacked a few hundred rebels on the outskirts today. The rebels fired back with Katyusha rockets but have found themselves outgunned. Plumes of smoke rose over the city, which is 95 miles south of the de-facto rebel capital of Benghazi.
"The weapons they have are heavy weapons and what we have are light weapons," said Fawzi Hamid.
"The Gaddafi forces are more powerful than us so we are depending on airstrikes."
People fleeing the violence said the rebels had control of the city centre while Gaddafi's forces were holding the outskirts.
Gaddafi's regime has alleged that dozens of civilians have been killed in the international bombardment, but no claims of civilian casualties have been independently verified.
