More airstrikes in Libya; fighting rages for control of cities

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.