Al Qathafi's Forces Roll On Despite Coalition's Strikes; Government Accuses Allied Forces of Targeting Civilians

Dead bodies of civilians that the Libyan government says were victims of the coalition's airstrikes Despite a fifth night of airstrikes, the Libyan regime's forces kept up their shelling of rebel-held cities by the use of tanks and heavy artillery, particularly at Misurata, Ajdabijah and Zintan, and with Libyan state television accusing the coalition forces of striking at civilians in the capital, Tripoli, and Jaafar, “killing dozens of civilians”. Libyan television reported UN-sponsored forces, calling them “colonialist crusaders”, as attacking military and civilian targets. Eight explosions were reported heard in the east of the capital late night on Wednesday, but US military officials denied any civilians had been killed. Government officials accompanied some journalists to a hospital early Thursday morning showing them 18 charred bodies, which the regime said, were military personnel and civilians killed in the air strikes. State television showed pictures of casualites arriving at a hospital, reportedly injured, or victims of the airstrikes by the coalition forces. At the same time, addressing journalists, the Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim addressing journalists, refused to admit that libyan forces are conducting offensive operations of any sort. “There are no attacks from Libyan forces from the air or from the ground. There are no military operations on the ground in Misurata,” he said. He added that the situation is, only confined to pockets of violence scattered in different areas of Misurata Meanwhile, the US military said it had successfully established a no-fly zone over Libya's coastal areas and had moved on to attack Al Qathafi's rremaining tanks. It has been reported that the coalition forces flew 175 sorties in 24 hours, with the US accounting for 113 of those, according to a US commander. The French defence minister, Gerard Longuet, said that France had destroyed about 10 Libyan armoured vehicles over three days. But these losses to the Al Qathafi forces, and the airstrikes have kept them from pressingg on with their assaults and their efforts to completely take control of the towns of Misurata,Ajdabiyah and Zintan. Under the cover of darkness, the pro-government forces used their tanks to push forward deep into the towns, particularly Misurata, the third largest city in the country around 200km east of Tripoli and home to a major oil refinery. According to reports Thursday, the loyalist troops shelled a residential area close to a hospital Government snipers carried on firing indiscriminately, and tanks were closing in on Misurata hospital, residents told Reuters news agency, while an opposition spokesman was quoted saying the snipers had killed 16 people. Contrary to what a resident in Zintan, 106km southwest of Tripoli told Al Jazeera, that is, that Al Qathafi's forces were bringing up more troops and tanks to bombard the opposition-held town, the Libyan government vehemently denies its army is conducting any offensive operations and says troops are only defending themselves when they come under attack. In the east, at Ajdabiyah, around 160km south of Benghazi, opposition fighters were reportedly pinned down outside the strategic junction after more than three days of trying to recapture the city. Despite coalition air strikes targeting the regime's forces along the road between Benghazi and Ajdabiyah, rebel forces have been unable to retake the town.