ALJAZEERA NEWS

Airstrikes fail to deter Gaddafi forces Residents say forces loyal to the Libyan leader shell area near Misurata hospital as explosions are heard in Tripoli. Last Modified: 24 Mar 2011 03:44 Western warplanes have hit Libya for a fifth night, but have so far failed to stop Muammar Gaddafi's tanks from shelling opposition-held towns. A loud explosion was heard in Tripoli, the capital, early on Thursday, and smoke could be seen rising from an area where a military base is situated. "We heard another explosion just now. We see smoke rising. There are people on rooftops. It seems to be in a military area near the engineering college [in the Tajoura area]," one resident told Reuters news agency. Eight explosions were also heard in the east of the capital late on Wednesday. Libyan state television said Western planes had struck in Tripoli and in Jafar, southwest of the capital. "Military and civilian targets were attacked by colonialist crusaders," the report said. Government officials have accused coalition forces of killing dozens of civilians, but have not shown reporters in the capital any evidence of such deaths. US military officials deny any civilians have been killed in airstrikes. Some journalists were taken to a hospital early on Thursday morning and shown 18 charred bodies, which the government said were military personnel and civilians killed in the air strikes, Reuters reported. Undeterred by raids The US military said it had successfully established a no-fly zone over Libya's coastal areas and had moved on to attack Gaddafi's tanks. The allies flew 175 sorties in 24 hours, and the US flew 113 of those, a US commander said. Gerard Longuet, the French defence minister, said France had destroyed about 10 Libyan armoured vehicles over three days. Undaunted by air strikes, pro-Gaddafi forces pressed ahead with their assaults on the towns of Misurata, Ajdabiya and Zintan. Gaddafi's tanks rolled back into Misurata under the cover of darkness and began shelling the area near the main hospital, residents and opposition fighters said, resuming their attack after their guns were silenced on Wednesday by Western air raids. The city, around 200km east of Tripoli and home to a major oil refinery, remains of the the last opposition hold-outs in the west. Government snipers in the coastal city, Libya's third largest, carried on firing indiscriminately, residents said. An opposition spokesman said the snipers had killed 16 people. "Government tanks are closing in on Misurata hospital and shelling the area," a doctor in Misurata told Reuters on the phone before the line was cut off. Four children were killed in the city on Tuesday as regime forces pressed their siege, a resident and a rebel spokesman said. It was impossible to independently verify the reports. The Libyan government denies its army is conducting any offensive operations and says troops are only defending themselves when they come under attack. But a resident in Zintan, 106km southwest of Tripoli, said Gaddafi's forces were bringing up more troops and tanks to bombard the opposition-held town.  Pro-democracy fighters had pushed Gaddafi's troops out of the town on Tuesday after enduring heavy shelling the day before, said Gaetan Vannay, a Swiss journalist observing events there. Rebels managed to capture four tanks during their attack, he said. Meanwhile in the east, opposition fighters were pinned down outside the strategic junction at Ajdabiya after more than three days of trying to recapture the city. Ajdabiya, around 160km south of the opposition stronghold of Benghazi, is connected by a straight inland road to Tobruk, near the Egyptian border. Despite coalition air strikes targeting Gaddafi's forces along the road between Benghazi and Ajdabiya, rebel forces have been unable to retake the town. Seven held over Greek parcel bombs

Suspects alleged to belong to group accused of targeting embassies in Athens as well as offices of European leaders. Last Modified: 15 Mar 2011 14:02 GMTd

The police have confiscated automatic assault rifles, handguns, ammunition and police uniforms [Reuters] Greek police have arrested seven people suspected of belonging to a guerrilla group blamed for a series of parcel bomb attacks targeting embassies and foreign leaders. Anti-terrorist police, which conducted raids on apartments in the central city of Volos and Athens, the Greek capital, on Monday, confiscated automatic assault rifles, handguns, ammunition and police uniforms. Police have been conducting ballistic tests to determine whether the weapons found had been used in guerrilla attacks. The group has carried out several bomb attacks since 2008, the latest of which caused extensive damage to a courthouse in Athens in December last year. It shot to international attention last November for a series of letter bombs to foreign embassies in Greece and to three European leaders. One of the packages was received by the office of Angela Merkel - the German Chancellor - while another, addressed to Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, caught fire aboard a courier flight that had landed at Italy's Bologna airport. Conspiracy Nuclei of Fire claimed responsibility for the series of attacks. Far-left militant groups About 30 suspected members of leftist groups have been arrested in the last two years as authorities try to stem a string of attacks that have rocked Greece since riots paralysed Athens in December 2008. Nine suspected members of the group, mostly in their early 20s, went on trial in January over the attacks. The six arrested on Monday, including two women, face charges of participation in a terrorist organisation, supply and possession of explosives and making bombs, and causing explosions. Far-left militant and armed anarchist groups have been active in Greece for decades. But attacks have spiked in the past two years, despite the arrest of more than a dozen suspects.

Source: Agencies