MISRATA, Libyan — As nearly 1,000 desperate civilians fled the besieged Libyan city of Misrata by ferry Monday, residents of a rebel-held district west of Tripoli reported more than 100 people had been killed there in 24 hours by forces loyal to strongman Col. Moammar Khadafy.
“Khadafy battalions have not stopped pounding the region, particularly Yafran and Nalut, with Grad rockets,” one Yafran resident told AFP. “There have been 110 dead (since Sunday), civilians and rebels, in both cities.”
A resident of Nalut, near the border with Tunisia, accused forces loyal to Khadafy of “carrying out a massacre” in the mountainous region.
“There have been at least 100 dead in two days,” the resident said. “They are firing Grad rockets on homes and hospitals. Several families had to flee towards Tunisia.”
Yafran is 130 kilometers (80 miles) southwest of Tripoli, while Nalut, a town of 66,000 people, is 235 kilometers (145 miles) west of the capital.
In rebel-held Misrata, where snipers, reported cluster bombs, and shelling have spread panic for days, the International Organization for Migration warned the huge numbers wanting to flee were threatening to overwhelm an international maritime rescue operation, AFP reported.
The IOM said nearly 1,000 stranded people had been taken out Monday but that thousands more were awaiting rescue in increasingly desperate circumstances.
Britain said it will charter ships to rescue 5,000 migrant workers trapped in the port city about 215 kilometres (130 miles) east of Tripoli, AFP said.
“The position in Misrata, which has sharply deteriorated in the last few days, means that there are 5,000 poor migrant workers caught out on the quayside with munitions exploding some 300 yards (meters) from where they are,” Britain’s International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell told the BBC.
AFP reported the administrator of the main hospital in Misrata, Dr. Khaled Abu Falgha, said 1,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the fighting that broke out in Misrata nearly six weeks ago, while another 3,000 people have been wounded.
“Eighty percent of the deaths are civilians,” he said.
Abu Falgha said last week saw increasing injuries from cluster bombs, requiring many amputations.Cluster bombs, which spray deadly bomblets indiscriminately over a large area, are banned by most countries.
In Tripoli, the UN said its envoys met with senior members of Khadafy’s regime and demanded that he end the attacks on Misrata.
At the UN later, a spokesman said Libya’s government had guaranteed “safe passage” for foreign aid workers into zones under its control and to let a UN mission go to Misrata.
Meawhile, renewed fighting was reported in the strategic rebel-held eastern crossroads town of Ajdabiya, AFP said, along with NATO air strikes on the town of Al-Aziziyah, south of Tripoli.