New Strikes as Libya Vows to Leave Misrata to Tribes

NATO launched fresh air raids on Tripoli Saturday as Moammar Gadhafi's government said it was ready to withdraw from Misrata and let tribes deal with rebels in the besieged city.

The strikes hit a patch of bare ground opposite Gadhafi's Bab al-Aziziya residence in central Tripoli and what looked like a bunker. Authorities who took foreign correspondents there said they were "a parking lot" and "sewers."

They were launched after deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaim said the Libyan army had been given an "ultimatum" to stop the rebellion in the western city, 200 kilometers east of the capital Tripoli.

"There was an ultimatum to the Libyan army: if they cannot solve the problem in Misrata, then the people from (the neighboring towns of) Zliten, Tarhuna, Bani Walid and Tawargha will move in and they will talk to the rebels," Kaim told journalists in the capital.

"If they don't surrender, then they will engage them in a fight."

Misrata has for weeks been the scene of deadly urban guerrilla fighting between rebels and forces loyal to longtime Libyan leader Gadhafi.

Kaim accused Washington of "new crimes against humanity" after U.S. President Barack Obama authorized deployment of missile-carrying drone warplanes over Libya for what his administration called "humanitarian" reasons.

He also hit out at a senior U.S. senator's visit to Benghazi, the opposition bastion in the east, saying the Transitional National Council (TNC) did not represent Libyans and had "no authority on the ground."

John McCain, a Republican senator who lost the presidential race to Obama in 2008, earlier held talks with TNC leaders, urging the international community to arm and recognize the rebel body as the "legitimate voice" of Libyans.

Rebels bogged down in their bid to oust Gadhafi hailed the U.S. decision to deploy armed drones over Libya.

"We hope that this can bring some relief to the people in Misrata," rebels spokesman Mustafa Gheriani told Agence France Presse of the rebel-held western city that Gadhafi's forces have pounded for more than six weeks, killing hundreds.

In Tripoli on Saturday, anti-aircraft fire rang out as ambulance sirens wailed. Al-Libya television said the capital was "now the target of raids by the barbaric crusader colonialist aggressor," a term used for Western forces.

The official JANA news agency reported two people died in NATO air raids late Friday on the Zintan region southwest of Tripoli where stepped up fighting has taken place with rebels who hold several towns.

As NATO warplanes overflew Gadhafi's stronghold throughout the day, an official from the alliance said the unmanned drones and their precision would give the coalition forces more options, especially in urban warfare.

"The use of drones will make it easier to target Gadhafi forces in crowded urban areas. A vehicle like the Predator, that can get down lower and can get IDs, will better help us carrying out the mission with precision and care," the NATO official said.

The U.S. military's top officer, meanwhile, said allied air strikes had destroyed 30 to 40 percent of Gadhafi's forces and noted the conflict was progressing into a stalemate.

"I am sure that NATO forces will continue to attrite the military capability of the regime forces," Admiral Michael Mullen said in Baghdad.

Rebels have complained civilians are being killed in places like Misrata, where entire streets have been pulverized by gunfire, shelling and cluster bombs.

Simon Brooks of the International Committee of the Red Cross issued a stark warning the humanitarian situation could "rapidly deteriorate further and the lack of basic services such as water, electricity, food and medical care could turn critical."

The U.N. refugee agency said some 15,000 people had fled fighting in western Libya into Tunisia in the past two weeks and a much larger exodus was feared.

France, Italy and Britain have said they would send military personnel to eastern Libya, but only to advise the rebels on technical, logistical and organizational matters and not to engage in combat.

Massive Libyan protests in February -- inspired by the revolts that toppled longtime autocrats in Egypt and Tunisia -- escalated into war when Gadhafi's troops fired on demonstrators and protesters seized several eastern towns.

The battle lines have been more or less static in recent weeks, however, as NATO air strikes have helped block Gadhafi's eastward advance but failed to give the poorly organized and lightly armed rebels a decisive victory.