The bombardment of Misrata was the heaviest for days and came as Western leaders, gathering for a Group of Eight summit in the French seaside resort of Deauville, were expected to reiterate their determination to force Gaddafi out.
Rebel spokesmen in Misrata, scene of some of the fiercest fighting in Libya’s three-month-old conflict, said the mortar attack killed three rebels.
Earlier, the sound of exploding mortar shells could be heard every few minutes in the western outskirts of Misrata and there was a steady stream of ambulances, a Reuters reporter said. At Misrata’s hospital, rebel fighters mourned their dead colleague.
Suleim Al-Faqih, one of the rebels, said the clashes started when rebels attacked pro-Gaddafi forces who were using an excavator to dig a trench to block a road. “We fired on them and advanced. They fell back and started firing mortars,” he said.
Spain said it was one of several foreign states contacted by Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi Ali Al-Mahmoudi with an offer of an immediate ceasefire.
But White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes, speaking in Deauville at the G8 summit, said the United States did not see the new Libyan ceasefire offer as credible because it was not accompanied by action.
Libya was not complying with U.N. demands and its forces were still attacking population centres, so the United States would continue with the military campaign, he told reporters.