Libyan port quiet after government bombardment

[April 27, 2011]  MISRATA, Libya (AP) -- The port of a besieged rebel-held city in western Libya was quiet Wednesday after fierce bombardment and attack the day before by government forces.

The comparative calm allowed an Albanian ship, the Red Star 1, chartered by the International Organization of Migration to dock at the port of Misrata with ten shipping containers of aid and two ambulances.

The ship was also there to evacuate refugees from the battered city that has become the main battlefield in the war between Moammar Gadhafi's forces and the rebels.

Everywhere around the port were signs of fierce bombardment, including a pillar of black smoke from a fiercely burning pile of tires ignited in the shelling.

Next to the tires could be seen the blackened husks of some 250 brand new cars, all burnt to a crisp, surrounded by pools of melted metal and glass from the fierce fire.

Misrata's port has served as a lifeline for the city, allowing in desperately needed medical supplies and food and ferrying out residents looking to flee the fierce fighting that has left swaths of the city in ruins.

The battle for Misrata, which has claimed hundreds of lives in the past two months, has become the focal point of the armed rebellion against Gadhafi in the western half of the country since fighting on the eastern front near the city of Ajdabiya has become deadlocked.

The Libyan government has denied that it engages in indiscriminate shelling of civilian population centers.

The United Nations Security Council used evidence of attacks on civilians as the pretext for its resolution authorizing an international campaign of airstrikes against Gadhafi's forces which has neutralized much of their heavy weapons and staved off total rebel defeat.

British Defense Minister Liam Fox said Tuesday that the airstrikes have helped put the regime on its "back foot" and aided the rebels in making progress, though for the past weeks, there has been little movement on any of the war's fronts.

"There is little doubt across the alliance that this key contribution has proven to be of immense value protecting civilians in Misrata and have helped opposition forces to defend themselves against this brutal regime there," he said.

[Associated Press; By BEN HUBBARD]

Associated Press writer Robert Burns contributed to this report from Washington.

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