Libyan rebels beg for NATO air strikes

LIBYAN rebels begged for more NATO air strikes, saying they faced a massacre from government artillery barrages on the besieged city of Misrata, but Western allies squabbled over how to respond.

Rebels said a hail of Grad rockets fired by besieging forces into a residential district of Misrata, Libya’s third largest city, had killed 23 civilians, mostly women and children.

Aid organisations warn of a humanitarian disaster in Misrata, the lone rebel bastion in western Libya, where hundreds of civilians are said to have died in a six-week siege.