TRIPOLI, Libya — The Libyan government renewed its artillery and rocket attack on the port of Misrata on Tuesday in its latest attempt to cut the lifeline of the besieged rebel-held western city.
The fresh assault on the Mediterranean port killed a migrant worker from Niger and wounded 11 other people, said Khaled Abu Falgha, a doctor at the Hikma Hospital there. It also disrupted humanitarian aid work and forced a Red Cross boat that had docked in the city to turn around, according to Human Rights Watch.
A rebel spokesman called the afternoon shelling by Moammar Gadhafi’s forces “murderous.”
“He’ll keep hitting the port,” Mohamed Ali said via Skype on Tuesday. “He wants to disrupt the flow of humanitarian aid and make Misrata’s port as unsafe as possible.”
Ali, who said he was at the port as the shells rained down, said the worker from Niger was killed while lining up to board an International Organization for Migration boat that had been expected to dock. By nightfall, the boat still hadn’t docked, he said. The organization was making its fifth trip to evacuate stranded migrants.
A rebel spokesman, Bashir, told Reuters news service that Gadhafi’s forces were using Grad missiles — Russian-made munitions fired in multiple rounds from launchers on the back of trucks — to attack the port. Three Libyans were also killed by government shelling in an eastern suburb, Falgha said, making it a quieter day in the city than many of late. At least 57 people died in shelling and fighting over the weekend.
More than 2,000 migrant workers are camped out in tents near the docks waiting for an escape from the war-torn city, 130 miles east of Tripoli.
Gadhafi’s renewed attempt to strangle Misrata comes after his military was forced out of the city center in fierce fighting over the past few days. Loyalist troops have responded to the setback by intensifying their rocket and mortar attacks on the city, including on residential areas, from their bases to the south and east.
A NATO spokesman on Tuesday denied that a rocket attack on Gadhafi’s compound Monday was an attempt on his life. The destroyed buildings included offices, a library Gadhafi was known to use and a meeting hall where he often receives visitors, including a recent mediation mission from the African Union.
Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard, the Canadian who commands allied operations for NATO, said the compound was essentially military and contained communications gear used to transmit orders to loyalist forces to attack civilians. The Obama administration also said Tuesday that NATO’s objective in Libya was not to kill Gadhafi, but to protect civilians.
The White House, meanwhile, has approved an authorization to send $25 million in non-lethal aid to Libyan opposition groups.
