Gaddafi forces hit by NATO air strike

NATO aircraft destroyed Libyan tanks on the outskirts of Ajdabiya yesterday, helping to break a major assault by forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi on the strategic rebel town.

NATO said it had hit 11 tanks outside Ajdabiya, which Gaddafi’s troops had earlier threatened to overrun, and 14 more on the outskirts of Misrata, a lone rebel bastion in western Libya which has been under siege for six weeks.

A Reuters reporter saw six burning hulks surrounded by 15 charred and dismembered bodies in two sites 300 metres apart on Ajdabiya’s western approaches.