In western coalition’s airstrikes on Wednesday morning airbase close to the Libyan city of Misrata was hit, in which governmental forces are stationed, while the city centre and the hospital are target of snipers, eyewitnesses claim.

A citizen of Misrata stated for Reuters in a phone-interview that the airbase in which Muammar al-Gaddafi’s brigade are was bombed twice Wednesday morning.

According to him, snipers killed two people in the city centre, where the shooting continues.

Snipers are shooting at the hospital in which the people are being treated, usually that were wounded in clashes between forces loyal to Gaddafi and the rebels, another citizen of Misrata stated for Reuters, but no independent sources were able to confirm that. He said that it is not possible to get into and out of the hospital. He also confirmed that there were two airstrikes by the coalition forces since Wednesday morning.

Gaddafi says he will win

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi addressed his supporters from a compound hit by coalition air strikes on Sunday saying that in the end they will win.

British BBC said that Gaddafi’s speech lasted three minutes and was broadcasted by state television. Gaddafi said there was a "new crusader battle launched by crusader countries on Islam" and called all Islamic armies to take part in the battle.

He claimed that he will not surrender and that “In the short term, we will beat them, in the long term, we will beat them.”

"The most powerful air defence. The most powerful air defence is the people. Here are the people. Gaddafi is in the middle of the people. This is the air defence," he said.

In the meantime, US State Secretary Hillary Clinton stated that that Gaddafi allies have been reaching out to other nations to explore options for the future.

"We've heard about... people close to him reaching out to people that they know around the world, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, North America, beyond, saying what do we do? How do we get out of this?" she said.

Western warplanes have flown more than 300 sorties over Libya and more than 162 Tomahawk cruise missiles have been fired in the United Nations-mandated mission to protect Libyan civilians against government troops.

The siege of Misrata is becoming increasingly desperate, with water cut off for days and food running out, doctors operating on patients in hospital corridors and many of the wounded left untreated or simply turned away.

The similar situation is in Ajdabiyah, where none of the two sides is strong enough to keep the city under its control.


NATO to take command of operations in Libya

White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes stated that the US President Barack Obama, French President Nikolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron agreed Tuesday that NATO should play an important role in enforcing the Libyan no-fly zone.

They have reviewed the substantial progress that has been made in terms of halting the advance of Gaddafi forces on Benghazi, as well as the establishment of a no-fly zone through the targeting of Gaddafi’s air defences and air assets, Rhodes said.

“The leaders also agreed that NATO should play a key role in the command structure going forward for the enforcement of the no-fly zone,” he said.

The USA and France have agreed on the future command structure of allied military operations over the next several days, Sarkozy’s cabinet stated.