SPORADIC EXPLOSIONS and bursts of gunfire broke out across the city of Benghazi last night, including one lengthy exchange near a hotel occupied by journalists.
Intense small arms fire and heavy explosions continued in the city until nearly 9pm.
Gunmen fired across streets near the al-Noura hotel, with one group setting up a roadblock on a nearby street.
Doctors at one hospital also said that gunfights had taken place close to another medical centre in the city.
Muammar Gadafy’s forces had fled from the outskirts of the rebel-held city, the de facto capital of the Libyan opposition, following allied air attacks over the weekend.
But rebels said armed Gadafy loyalists had re-emerged from hiding after weeks of lying low and were responsible for many fatal shootings as they rampaged over the weekend. The regime forces had subjected the city to heavy shelling before their retreat. Doctors said at least 95 people had died in the violence, but several added that the toll was expected to rise as bodies were gradually located throughout the city.
Libya announced another ceasefire last night as the country braced itself for a second night’s bombardment by allied forces.
The order – preceded by a barrage of anti-aircraft fire from the capital Tripoli – was issued in the name of the Libyan government and armed forces, rather than in that of Col Gadafy himself.
A government spokesman in Tripoli said: “We, the Popular Social Leadership of Libya, recommend to the armed forces to announce an immediate ceasefire to all military units.”
A ceasefire announced by the Libyan government on Friday was apparently breached within hours.
Last night a spokesman for British prime minister David Cameron said that despite the new Libyan declaration the no-fly zone would continue to be enforced. The US also rejected the ceasefire announcement.
British and US forces launched a devastating assault on Saturday on Libya’s air defences, which saw 112 Tomahawk missiles fired from US ships and a Royal Navy submarine, followed by a pre-dawn raid by RAF Tornados and US stealth bombers. The British ministry of defence declared itself “entirely comfortable” with the success of the raid, while US senior military officer Admiral Mike Mullen said that a no-fly zone was now effectively in place over the north African state.
There were reports late last night that part of an administration building, thought to house weaponry at Col Gadafy’s Tripoli residence had also been destroyed in the latest bombardment.
Meanwhile, French sources said that four Qatari aircraft were joining its aircraft in patrolling the no-fly zone. The participation of the Arab state’s forces would be a significant indication that the operation to enforce United Nations resolution 1973 was not simply a Western campaign, as Col Gadafy has claimed.
There were signs of unease in the Arab world, however, over the scale and nature of the weekend’s attacks, which also included direct air strikes by French Mirage and Rafale jets on Col Gadafy’s tanks outside Benghazi.
The Arab League’s secretary general, Amr Moussa, appeared to suggest allied forces had gone beyond the measures to protect civilians called for by his organisation last weekend and authorised by Thursday’s UN resolution.
Meanwhile, Russia – which abstained in Thursday’s Security Council vote – called on all involved in the Libyan conflict “to halt the indiscriminate use of force”.
In a further show of defiance yesterday, Col Gadafy sent tanks into Misurata, the last rebel-held city in western Libya.
Residents said government tanks and snipers had entered the centre of the city after a base outside it had been hit by coalition air strikes. “Two people were killed so far today by snipers. They [the snipers] are still on the rooftops. They are backed with four tanks, which have been patrolling the town. It’s getting very difficult for people to come out,” one Misurata resident said.
Sixty-four people were killed in the coalition bombardment on Saturday night, a Libyan government health official said, but it was impossible for journalists in Tripoli to verify the report. – (Additional reporting AP)