Libyan rebels set sights on Misrata airport

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MISRATA (Libya), Apr 28 (AFP): Libyan rebels fought to take Misrata's airport Thursday after pushing back Moamer Kadhafi's forces from the city's lifeline sea port as the oil-rich country's tribes urged the strongman to quit. As a UN panel arrived in Libya to investigate violence and human rights abuses, rebels in Misrata said they were confident victory was "very close" for them in the strategic port city. "Our freedom fighters have managed to defeat the soldiers of Kadhafi" by forcing them out of Misrata, Khalid Azwawi, head of the local transition committee, told a news conference late Wednesday. "They managed to force them to leave, but not very far. That's why Kadhafi is trying to bomb the port," he said. Rebel fighters backed by NATO air strikes said Wednesday they drove Kadhafi's troops out of missile range of the port of Misrata, an aid conduit for the city of half a million people under siege for more than seven weeks. The fighting continued around Misrata's airport Thursday morning, according to the rebels. "Significant Kadhafi forces" were concentrated around the airport a few kilometres (miles) west of the besieged city, rebel military chief Ibrahim Bet- Almal said, noting "cooperation between (his) forces and NATO." "We're trying to clear this area" on the city's outskirts which was rocked by continuous explosions Wednesday night as missiles and rockets fell randomly, he said. Their comrades defending Zintan, in the mountains southwest of Tripoli, also pushed back Kadhafi forces who bombarded the town with at least 20 Grad rockets, wounding three people and damaging a hospital, before retreating.