Nato strikes in Misrata, shelling resumes

Nato air strikes forced Libyan government troops to withdraw from one of their positions in the besieged city of Misrata overnight but they resumed bombardment of the port area using Grad missiles, a rebel spokesman said. Forces loyal to Muammar Qadhafi also fired the Russian-made Grad, a multiple-volley system which rights groups say is highly inaccurate, into the centre of the rebel-held town of Zintan.
"There was intense bombardment this morning. Around 15 Grad rockets landed in the town centre, two of them landed where I'm standing now," the spokesman, called Abdulrahman, said by telephone from Zintan, in the Western Mountains region. "Five houses were destroyed. Nobody was killed, luckily, but some children were slightly wounded," he said.
Later on Wednesday, Qadhafi's forces began firing mortar rounds at a district in the west of Misrata, a rebel spokesman said. "They carried out intense bombardment, using mortars," the spokesman, called Safieddin, said by telephone from the city.
A UN human rights group arrived in Libya to investigate accusations pro-Qadhafi forces have violated human rights and attacked civilians. Libya says security forces were forced to act against armed gangs and al Qaeda sympathisers trying to seize control of the oil exporting country. An aid ship took advantage of a brief lull in the fighting to rescue Libyans and a French journalist wounded in the fighting in Misrata, along with migrant workers, from the western rebel enclave and headed for Benghazi, centre of the rebel heartland in the east. "Despite heavy shelling of the port area ... about 935 migrants and Libyans have been rescued and are now safely en route to Benghazi," the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said.
Misrata has become the focus of Qadhafi's drive to break a rebellion against his four-decade rule. But neither the army nor rebels backed by British and French-led Nato air strikes have achieved a decisive victory in weeks of fighting that have destroyed large areas of the town.
"Qadhafi's forces retreated from the port area where they were positioned yesterday after air strikes by the Nato forces," a rebel spokesman called Reda told Reuters in Algiers by telephone from Misrata. "The strikes completely destroyed 37 military vehicles." "Qadhafi's forces this morning started bombarding an area about 10 km (6 miles) north of the city. It is known as the Steel area. The bombardment is still going on. They are using Grad missiles ... Warplanes are flying over Misrata's outskirts but I don't hear any sound of strikes," he said by telephone.
Human Rights Watch says the Grad, which takes its name from the Russian word for "hail", is one of world's most inaccurate systems and should never be used in civilian areas. UN investigators arrived in Tripoli and met Libyan officials. "We have a number of questions dealing with indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas, civilian casualties, torture and the use of mercenaries and other questions," said Cherif Bassiouni, an Egyptian legal expert and member of the UN commission.