Heavy fighting in Misrata,Libyan mountains

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TRIPOLI, Apr 26 (Reuters): Troops loyal to Muammar Gaddafi extended their campaign to pound Berber towns in Libya's Western Mountains and battled rebels around the port of the besieged western city of Misrata. Tripoli was quiet Tuesday after a NATO strike on Gaddafi's compound in the capital which Libyan officials said was an attempt to kill the leader who is fighting an uprising against his 41-year rule of this oil producing desert state. More than a month of Western air strikes have yet to tip the balance decisively in a conflict that has been described as a stalemate. The intervention in Libya is the biggest in an Arab country since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. A rebel spokesman in Misrata said on Tuesday that pro-Gaddafi forces had withdrawn to the outskirts of the city, which is gripped by a humanitarian crisis, but that fighting was raging. As Libya has descended into civil war, counter-attacks by government forces have underlined Gaddafi will not go the same way as fellow leaders in Egypt and Tunisia did in the tide of popular unrest that has rolled across the Arab world. The Libyan leader has vowed to fight to the death. The conflict has split the oil producer, Africa's fourth biggest, into a government-held western area round the capital Tripoli and an eastern region held by ragged but dedicated rebel forces.