Human Rights Watch says Gaddafi forces fire cluster bombs Frozen Libyan funds should pay for aid: German minister BENGHAZI: Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi fired at least 100 Grad rockets into Misrata Saturday, a rebel spokesman said, in a third day of heavy bombardment of the rebel-held city. Misrata is the rebels' only major bastion in the western part of Libya. Pro-Gaddafi forces have laid siege to it for seven weeks after cities across the coast rose up against the Libyan leader's four-decade rule in mid-February. “They fired Grads at an industrial area this morning, at least 100 rockets were fired. No casualties are reported,” Abdelbasset Abu Mzereiq told Reuters by telephone. In the east, rebel military leader, Abdel Fattah Younes, said his forces were engaged in fierce fighting in Brega, west of Benghazi, and said he hoped he would have “good news” soon. “We have people who are positioned at the entrance to Brega, they have cleared out some snipers. We've basically cleared out Gaddafi's forces from the eastern outskirts,” rebel commander Jibril Mohammed Jibril said Saturday on the fringes of Ajdabiyah, the nearest town to Brega still under rebel control. A rebel at the entrance to Ajdabiyah said rebels were still being ambushed by government forces along the main highway linking the two towns. Artillery fire was heard coming from the direction of Brega, but it was unclear who was firing, he said. Human Rights Watch said it had evidence Gaddafi's forces were firing cluster bombs into residential areas of Misrata. It published photographs of what it said were Spanish-produced cluster bombs, which release grenades designed to explode into fragments and kill the maximum number of people. Rebel spokesman Abdelsalam in Misrata said pro-Gaddafi forces had on Friday also shelled the road leading to the port, a lifeline for trapped civilians and the main entry point for international aid agencies, killing eight people. “Today was very tough ... Gaddafi's forces entered Tripoli Street and Nakl al Theqeel road,” he said by phone, referring to a main Misrata thoroughfare. A government reconnaissance helicopter had flown over the city, he said, despite a no-fly zone mandated by the UN Security Council and enforced by NATO warplanes. Late on Friday, an aid ship brought nearly 1,200 Misrata evacuees to the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, just a fraction of those stranded and desperate to escape, an official of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said. Up to 10,000 people still needed to be evacuated from Misrata, IOM aid coordinator Jeremy Haslam said. Continued bombardment made it impossible to get into many areas of the city, he said. “We threw out the textbook, basically. We couldn't get to the most vulnerable, those who need to get out fastest, because it was too dangerous,” Haslam said. Government spokesman Ibrahim said that a Red Cross team had arrived in Misrata Saturday. Meanwhile, German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle has suggested that frozen Libyan funds should be diverted to the United Nations to pay for aid to victims of the conflict, a report said Saturday. The weekly Der Spiegel quoted an internal note from Bruederle's ministry saying that Germany had frozen six billion dollars of assets belonging to Gaddafi or the Libyan state in line with UN sanctions. These assets, as well as those seized by other European countries, could be paid into a special UN account “in order to pay for humanitarian aid to ease the distress of the inhabitants of the whole of Libya,” the note was quoted as saying.
