Fighting grips Misrata, drones enter Libya conflict

TRIPOLI: Heavy fighting rocked Misrata on Saturday, overwhelming its hospital, after Moamer Kadhafi's regime gave its army an "ultimatum" to take the besieged Libyan city and US drones entered the fray.

The United States said it carried out the first drone strike in the more than month-old conflict.

At least 10 people were killed and 50 wounded in the Misrata street battles that came after NATO air raids struck near a compound in the capital Tripoli where Kadhafi resides.

"Since eight o'clock this morning, we have received 10 dead and 50 wounded, which is usually the number for a full day," said Doctor Khalid Abu Salra at the main Hikma hospital in the western port city.

"We're overwhelmed, overwhelmed. We lack everything: personnel, equipment and medicines," he said.

Ambulances pulled up outside the hospital every three or four minutes, also bringing in wounded soldiers loyal to Kadhafi, as paramedics frantically wiped blood off stretchers.

Misrata has been the scene of deadly urban guerrilla fighting between pro-Kadhafi forces and outgunned rebels for more than six weeks.

Saturday's upsurge in the fight for the port city came after Kadhafi's government said it had given its army an "ultimatum" to stop the rebellion in the city, 200 kilometres (120 miles) east of the capital.

Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim said: "There was an ultimatum to the Libyan army: if they cannot solve the problem in Misrata, then the people from (the neighbouring towns of) Zliten, Tarhuna, Bani Walid and Tawargha will move in and they will talk to the rebels.

"If they don't surrender, then they will engage them in a fight," he told journalists.

Hamed al-Hasi, a colonel coordinating rebel fighters at the western gate of the crossroads town of Ajdabiya in the east, said the decision meant the insurgents were beginning to win the war.

"This is the first nail in the coffin of Kadhafi. This means the Libyan army is no longer capable," he told AFP.

The United States carried out its first Predator drone strike in Libya in the early afternoon on Saturday, the Pentagon said, declining to give details on the targets or location.

NATO, in an update on Saturday, said a total of 1,432 "strike sorties" -- to identify targets but not necessarily carry out attacks -- have been conducted since it took over military operations against Kadhafi's Libya on March 31. (AFP)