Blasts rock Tripoli as battle rages in west Libya

TRIPOLI (AFP) - Strong explosions rocked Tripoli Friday as fighting between rebels and Moamer Kadhafi's forces raged on multiple fronts in western Libya and the Red Cross warned the humanitarian situation is worsening.

The International Organisation for Migration said meanwhile thousands of migrants are seeking to leave Tripoli.

"There are already thousands of Egyptians who are ready for evacuation now, and what we are hearing is that every day that there are more and more requests," spokeswoman of the inter-governmental agency Jemini Pandya told reporters in Geneva.

A slew of explosions were heard around 1:00 am (2300 GMT) in the heart of the seaside capital where Kadhafi's residential complex is located, as well as in several areas in the west of the city.

NATO in its latest operational update said its warplanes had on Thursday destroyed four military facilities and a surface to air missile in the vicinity of Tripoli.

With the rebels pushing closer Tripoli, vowing to take it before the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan ends late August, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini urged the population of the capital to rise up against Kadhafi.

"We hope the people of Tripoli, who unfortunately are already fleeing, understand the regime has harmed its own people and will therefore join a process of political change to cut off room for manoeuvre for Kadhafi's regime," Frattini said in Rome.

The rebels meanwhile said they had early Friday launched a fresh assault on Zliten, 150 kilometres (93 miles) east of Tripoli, and after a fight lasting just hours had pushed into the centre of the town.

The offensive was launched around 07:30 am (0530 GMT) and "at 1:00 pm our information indicates that the rebel troops entered the city centre," the Information Centre For Misrata Military Council said in a statement.

"The battle began with an artillery bombardment on the positions of Kadhafi's forces, followed by a swift movement forward by rebels," the statement said.

"Kadhafi forces have used tanks to try unsuccessfully to repel the rebels. There are dead and injured rebels," it added. A total of "1,230 rebel fighters took part in the attack."

Earlier, the insurgents said they had advanced "to the south of Zliten" in an area called Sir Leslie, forcing Kadhafi loyalists to pull back.

"Between 40 and 50 Kadhafi forces were killed" in the fighting, while some 12 African mercenaries were captured, the statement said, adding that 40 insurgents were wounded, 10 of them seriously.

Rebels have been seeking to sever Tripoli's supply lines from Tunisia to the west and to Kadhafi's hometown of Sirte in the east in a move they hope will cut off the capital, prompt defections and spark an uprising inside Tripoli.

Fighting was also raging in the western town of Zawiyah, a key source of fuel supplies to the capital, and the last major barrier before the rebels can think about advancing on Tripoli.

The opposition forces said Thursday they had seized the refinery in the town but Libyan Prime Minister Baghdadi Mahmudi hotly disputed the claim, saying the refinery was "without doubt" still in loyalists' hands.

An AFP correspondent in Zawiyah, 40 kilometres west of Tripoli, said fighting was taking place in many parts of the town on Friday and it was impossible to determine who was in control.

Kadhafi snipers were staked out on rooftops as the battles raged, with buildings and streets in the town centre showing signs of massive damage from the warfare.

Zawiyah's refinery, the only one in western Libya, is vital to the Kadhafi regime, as it supplies fuel to Tripoli.

NATO said it had on Thursday destroyed a command and control node, two armed vehicles and five tanks near Zawiyah.

Further west, another rebel commander, Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani, said that rebels were pushing toward the Tunisian border -- an apparent bid to further strangle what limited supply lines remain for Kadhafi's regime.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said the intensified fighting has seen a "rapid deterioration in the humanitarian situation" in several Libyan towns.

"The ICRC is deeply concerned about the increasing number of casualties and about allegations of health-care facilities being misused by weapon bearers," the organisation said in a statement.

"We are hearing about hospitals being attacked or used for military purposes," it said.

"On Tuesday, in (eastern oil town) Brega, our delegates saw several ambulances hit by bullets," said Georges Comninos, head of the ICRC delegation in Tripoli.

"This is seriously compromising the delivery of health care to the wounded and sick."

The statement listed Brega as well as the western towns of Zawiyah, Garyan, and Sabratha, near the rebel-held city of Misrata, where it said conditions were worsening for civilians.