Libya: 12 killed after Gaddafi forces shell Misrata

Local doctor says victims were shelled by Grad rockets, mortars at their homes; Tunisia expresses outrage after Libyan unrest spills over.

By REUTERS
Libyan rebel firing at heli (R) 311 (photo credit: Goran Tomasevic / Reuters)
Libyan rebel firing at heli (R) 311
(photo credit: Goran Tomasevic / Reuters)
BENGHAZI, Libya - Shelling by forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in the city of Misrata killed 12 people on Thursday, a local doctor said.
"Here in Misrata we have 12 killed, including two females," the doctor told Reuters on Friday. "Those killed were ... shelled by Grad (rockets) at their homes or shelled by mortars."
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On Thursday, Libya's two-month civil war spilled over the border into Tunisia, provoking outrage in the western neighbor, while rebels in Misrata said only NATO could halt the bombardment of the besieged city.
Gaddafi troops battled rebels on Tunisian territory for control of the Dehiba-Wazin frontier crossing.
The incursion was brief and limited, and Gaddafi's troops even apologized locally. But the response was nevertheless furious from Tunisia, where the Arab world's wave of uprisings began late last year, leading to the overthrow of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in January.
Click for full Jpost coverage of turmoil in the Middle East
Click for full Jpost coverage of turmoil in the Middle East
 "Given the gravity of what has happened ... the Tunisian authorities have informed the Libyans of their extreme indignation and demand measures to put an immediate stop to these violations," a Tunisian Foreign Ministry statement said.
Illustrating the difficulty of keeping the Libyan conflict sealed within the country's land borders, artillery shells fired by Gaddafi forces also struck the Tunisian side of the crossing.
Rebels seized the post a week ago, as it controls the only road link which their comrades in Libya's Western Mountains have with the outside world, making them rely otherwise on rough tracks for supplies of food, fuel and medicine.