A Red Cross convoy carrying aid to relieve a humanitarian crisis in Libya's besieged city of Sirte had to turn back on Monday because Libyan interim government forces unleashed a barrage of fire. Government forces on the other side of the city, Muammar Qadhafi's home town, broke weeks of deadlock by pushing into a district of Sirte where their commanders had said they believed one of Qadhafi's sons, Mo'atassem, was hiding.
In Tripoli, the man convicted of the 1988 bombing of a US-bound airline over the Scottish town of Lockerbie told Reuters in an interview his role had been exaggerated and that the truth behind the bombing would emerge soon. Aid agencies say they are concerned about the welfare of civilians inside Sirte, one of the last pro-Qadhafi bastions left in the country, who are trapped by the fighting and running out of food, water, fuel and medical supplies.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) took some supplies into Sirte last week, and it tried again on Monday, assembling a convoy of two trucks carrying aid, and accompanied by two four-wheel drive vehicles. The convoy set off from a bridge a few kilometres west of Sirte but came to a halt after only about 100 metres because interim government forces started firing into the city. They fired a heavy barrage of mortar bombs, artillery, rocket-propelled grenades and anti-aircraft weapons just as the convoy was starting to move. The ICRC convoy turned around and headed back west, away from Sirte.
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