Sirte: A rocket killed two children on Saturday as
their family joined the quickening exodus of civilians during
a two-day window to flee the battle for Muammar Gaddafi`s
hometown of Sirte, a Libyan medic said.
Some of the hundreds of people escaping the city said
there had been civilian casualties there when residential
buildings were hit, either by artillery fire from besieging
new regime forces or by NATO air strikes.
National Transitional Council (NTC) forces besieged the
Ouagadougou Conference Centre today, a show piece venue in
Sirte where Gaddafi hosted the launch of the African Union.
A large force of some 100 vehicles, including anti-tank
guns and multiple missile launchers, entered the city from the
south at around midday and surrounded the compound.
"We are surrounding the Ouagadougou Centre," fighter Osama
Blao told agency as he returned from the front line.
Several NTC fighters said the Red Crescent had asked them
to stop firing because Red Cross officials were inspecting a
hospital close to the centre.
Some of the fighters pulled back after two hours of
intense clashes, during which loyalist forces used snipers and
mortar fire.
The coast road west to Libya`s third-largest city of
Misrata was clogged with convoys of fleeing civilians, an AFP
correspondent reported.
The two children killed "were torn to pieces," said Ahmed
Abu AUD, a field medic on the western side of Sirte. "They
collected the body parts in bags."
PTI
