Rescue ship evacuates 1,000 from Libyan city

A CHARTERED ship evacuated nearly 1,000 foreign workers and wounded Libyans from Misrata as government artillery bombarded the besieged city that has come to symbolise the struggle against Muammar Gaddafi’s rule.

“We wanted to be able to take more people out but it was not possible,” said Jeremy Haslam, who led the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) rescue mission. “Although the exchange of fire subsided while we were boarding... we had a very limited time to get the migrants and Libyans on board the ship and then leave.”

A rebel spokesman said bombardments pounded Misrata for a fifth day after shelling killed 17 people and wounded about 100, mostly civilians, on Sunday.

Misrata is the rebels’ main stronghold in the west and has been under siege by pro-Gaddafi forces for the past week.

Evacuees say conditions there are becoming increasingly desperate and hundreds of civilians are believed to have been killed.

“The Gaddafi forces are shelling Misrata now. They are firing rockets and artillery rounds on the eastern side — the Nakl el Theqeel [road] and the residential areas around it,” evacuee Abdubasset Abu Mzeireq said.

The Ionian Spirit steamed out of Misrata carrying 971 people, most of them migrants mainly from Ghana, the Philippines and Ukraine, heading for the rebel stronghold of Benghazi in eastern Libya. It was the second vessel chartered by the IOM, which took out nearly 1,200 migrants from Misrata last Friday.

Among the rescued group were 100 Libyans, including a child shot in the face, the IOM said.

“We have a very, very small window to get everyone out. We do not have the luxury of having days, but hours,” said IOM official Pasquale Lupoli.

“Every hour counts and the migrants still in Misrata cannot survive much longer like this.”

Pro-Gaddafi forces have also kept up an offensive on the rebels’ eastern frontline outpost of Ajdabiyah, which rebels want to use as a staging post to retake the oil port of Brega to the west.

Sunday marked a month since the UN Security Council passed a resolution authorising force to protect civilians in Libya, leading to international air strikes.

Despite NATO air strikes against Gaddafi’s armour, rebels have been unable to hold gains in weeks of fighting over the coastal towns in eastern Libya.

With NATO troops bogged down in Afghanistan, Western countries have ruled out sending ground troops, a position reinforced by the British prime minister on Sunday.

“What we’ve said is there is no question of invasion or an occupation — this is not about Britain putting boots on the ground,” David Cameron said.