Almost 150 people have been killed in six days of tribal clashes in a remote southern desert town in Libya, the country’s health minister said today.

Nato airstrikes pounded an area in Muammar Gaddafi’s hometown today, fighters said, while revolutionary forces surrounding the city came under rocket fire.

Muammar Gaddafi has claimed his regime is still alive in Libya and has called his opponents' takeover of all but a few pockets of the country a charade.

Facing little resistance, revolutionary fighters captured the airport and other parts of a southern desert city that is one of the last remaining strongholds of Muammar Gaddafi's forces, even as military offensives stalled to the north.

In a fiery broadcast from hiding, Muammar Gaddafi has warned that loyalist tribes in his main strongholds were armed and preparing for battle, a show of defiance hours after rebels extended a deadline for the surrender of the fugitive leader’s home town.