Turkey said it has offered Moamer Qadhafi guarantees to leave Libya but has yet to receive a reply, as rebels reported his forces killed 20 people in a fierce assault on Misrata. Fresh Nato-led strikes sent up plumes of smoke Friday in Tripoli, where Qadhafi has his residence, but US Defence Secretary Robert Gates warned the air war on the strongman's forces could be in peril because of military shortcomings.
In a military update on Friday's strikes, the British defence ministry said its fighters had destroyed four tanks "hidden in an orchard" near the town of Al-Aziziyah, south-west of Tripoli. Tornado and Typhoon jets also bombed a military base at Al-Mayah on the western outskirts of the capital, it said.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his government had offered exit "guarantees" to the embattled Libyan leader, whom rebels have been trying to oust since February following a bloody crackdown on pro-reform protests. Qadhafi "has no other option than to leave Libya - with a guarantee to be given to him," Erdogan said on NTV television. "We have given him this guarantee. We have told him we will help him to be sent wherever he wants to go," he added, without elaborating.