TRIPOLI: A fresh hail of government rockets crashed into Misrata on Friday after Western allies denounced a “medieval siege” of the city and vowed to keep bombing Muammar Gaddafi's forces until he stepped down. A local doctor said at least eight people died and seven others were wounded in the second day of intense bombardment of Misrata, a lone rebel bastion in western Libya. Residents said that at least 120 rockets hit the city, where hundreds of civilians are reported to have died in a six-week siege. The suffering of Misrata is heaping pressure on Western allies to step up air attacks to stop the bombardment, but NATO is split over providing more planes for the task. British Foreign Secretary William Hague said at a NATO ministerial meeting in Berlin that London was making progress in persuading other members to provide more strike aircraft, but Italy immediately ruled out joining attacks. Britain, France and the United States said in a joint newspaper article on Friday: “It is unthinkable that someone who has tried to massacre his own people can play a part in their future government.” But their clear intention to achieve regime change in Libya goes well beyond the terms of a United Nations resolution authorizing airstrikes to protect civilians and other allies have misgivings. Gaddafi's daughter Aisha told a rally in Tripoli that demanding his departure was an insult. In a strongly worded article published on both sides of the Atlantic, British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and US President Barack Obama said leaving Gaddafi in power would be an “unconscionable betrayal”. “So long as Gaddafi is in power, NATO and its coalition partners must maintain their operations so that civilians remain protected and the pressure on the regime builds,” they said. The statement seemed intended to both paper over cracks in the Atlantic alliance and increase resolve to stick with the air campaign despite increasing differences. The allied leaders said in their article that Gaddafi could play no role in a transition to democracy. “For that transition to succeed, Colonel Gaddafi must go, and go for good.” On the fluid eastern front in Libya's two-month civil war, rebels said Gaddafi forces advancing from the oil port of Brega had opened fire on the western edge of the insurgent-held town of Ajdabiyah on Friday, killing one of their fighters. The attack on Misrata on Friday followed intense fire from Russian-made Grad rocket launchers into a residential district on Thursday when rebels said 23 people died, mostly women and children. They said more than 200 missiles fell in the port. “They shelled this area because the port is Misrata's only window to the outside world,” a rebel spokesman using the name Ghassan said by telephone. “The destruction there was huge. I was there and saw for myself,” he said, adding that the port had been shut. Thousands of foreign migrants are stranded in desperate conditions in the open in the port. Aid organizations warn of a humanitarian disaster. In their article, the US, British and French leaders said Misrata was “enduring a medieval siege as Gaddafi tries to strangle its population into submission”.
