Tripoli/Washington, Mar 22: Western forces today pounded several Libyan military targets across Tripoli as fighting raged in a number of cities between the rebels and forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi and NATO allies tried to overcome differences over the role they should play in Libya.
Despite the coalition striking targets with 24 more Tomahawk missiles to impose a no-fly zone, there was no let up by Gaddafi's military which pounded rebel-held towns of Misurata and Ajdabiya.
A US Air Force F-15E crashed near the rebel stronghold of Benghazi overnight due to mechanical failure. The US military said both crew members ejected and were safe.
Admiral Samuel J Locklear III, Commander, US Naval Forces Europe and Africa, said Libyan air force's capabilities have been significantly degraded as a result of the air strikes and that the objectives of the airstrikes were to degrade the effectiveness of the remaining air force assets.
He said that Gaddafi's forces were still using military force against the civilian population.
Fighting between Gaddafi's forces and the rebels continued with government troops shelling Misurata, intensifying their siege of the major oil refinery western city, 200 km east of the capital.
Reports from the town of Yafran, southwest of Tripoli, said fighting broke out between Libyan loyalists and the rebels who control the area, killing at least nine people.
Government troops also engaged rebels in the eastern town of Ajdabiya, where heavy fighting and shelling was continuing, Al Jazeera said.
Amid indications that the 'no-fly' zone over Libya was going to be widened to cover almost 1,000 kms, the allied firepower also targeted Gaddafi's stronghold of Zuwarah, Sirte, Sebha as well as Ajdabiya.
US President Barack Obama has said that the transition to the coalition against Libya would be based on conditions on the ground, but anticipated this to happen in matter of days.
"How quickly this transfer takes place will be determined by the recommendations of our commanding officers that the mission has been completed," he said at a joint news conference with his Chilean counterpart, Sebastian Pinera, in Santiago, Chile.
A UN special envoy to Libya said today after meeting rebel leaders in Tobruk that Libyan insurgents want a quick ceasefire and a lifting of the siege of Libyan cities by Gaddafi's forces.
His comments coincided with a 24-hour visit by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to Tunisia.
Russia, meanwhile, demanded an immediate ceasefire in Libya and the start of political negotiations.
Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov told visiting US Defence Secretary Robert Gates that Moscow believed Libyan civilians had been killed in the Western air strikes.
"We urge (the sides) to do everything to end the violence," Serdyukov said after closed- door talks with his US counterpart.
As the missile and air strikes continued for the third day, a top US general claimed that the coalition forces had virtually frozen Gaddafi's advance in the key rebel city of Benghazi, handing back some momentum to the rebels, who were on the verge of being overrun just last week.
Gates said the bombing raids against Libya's regime were likely to be scaled down in a matter of days after air defence sites are knocked out.
"I think as we are successful at suppressing the air defences the level of kinetic activity should decline," Gates said in Moscow.
He said that international forces were trying to minimise civilian casualities in Libya, adding that "significant military fighting that has been going on should recede in the next few days."
International criticism of the coalition enforcing the no-fly zone continued to grow, with China too joining India and Russia demanding an end to the strikes.
Jiang Yu, a spokeswoman for China's foreign ministry, said on Tuesday that the government opposed "the wanton use of armed force leading to more civilian casualties and more humanitarian disasters".
Four children were killed while trying to flee their home in Misurata, a rebel spokesman was quoted as saying by the Arab channel.
Rebel fighters were on the retreat amid an attack by government forces in the eastern town of Ajdabiya, where fierce fighting continued.
"There's been heavy fighting and heavy shelling going on ... the rebels told me there have been heavy casualties and there are a number of corpses between here and the town (of Ajdabiya) that they have been unable to reach," Al Jazeera said.
It said the road between the eastern city of Benghazi and Ajdabiya was littered with the "burned-out wreckage of what was Gaddafi's armour and tanks," destroyed in air raids by coalition forces. PTI
