Thousands of troops loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gadafy advanced on the rebel-held western city of Misrata today, shelling it from three sides in attacks that killed at least 12 rebels, a rebel spokesman said.
The offensive followed a lull in Nato bombing of Tripoli today, after 24 hours of some of the heaviest bombardments of the Libyan capital since air strikes began in March.
"Misrata is under heavy shelling ... Gadafy forces are shelling Misrata from three sides: east, west and south," rebel spokesman Hassan al-Misrati told Reuters from inside the town.
"He has sent thousands of troops from all sides and they are trying to enter the city. They are still outside, though."
Doctors at the Hekmah hospital in central Misrata told Reuters correspondents who visited it that at least 11 people had been killed and 35 wounded, many seriously.
There was no immediate comment from Gadafy's government.
A rebel fighter, who declined to be named, vowed revenge. "One day soon, God willing, we will be at Bab al-Aziziya (Gadafy's compound) and we will find Gadafy and his military forces and we will kill him," he told Reuters.
Western powers are lining up behind the rebels. Spain said today it had recognised their National Transitional Council as the country's only representative.
"I'm here today to confirm that the National Transitional Council is the only legitimate representative of the Libyan people," Spanish Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez told reporters in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.
Rebel spokesman Abdulrahman said from Zintan that Gadafy's forces had also shelled the western town on Wednesday morning, after sending large numbers of troops towards it.
Gadafy's troops and the rebels have been deadlocked for weeks, with neither side able to hold territory on a road between Ajdabiyah in the east, which Gadafy forces shelled on Monday, and the Gadafy-held oil town of Brega further west.
Rebels control the east of Libya, the western city of Misrata and the range of western mountains near the border with Tunisia. They have been unable to advance on the capital against Gadafy's better-equipped forces.
Reuters