Benghazi, Libya (ANTARA News/AFP) - NATO launched air strikes against Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi`s troops in Misrata on Sunday after regime forces killed at least 11 people there over the weekend, rebels said.

The air strikes were carried out in Misrata on Sunday morning, a rebel spokesman in the besieged town told AFP, describing the raids as "a marked improvement in NATO intervention".

"They began the raids yesterday on the Kadhafi forces in the northwest of the town and near the centre of Misrata," said the spokesman.

"In the morning, there were new raids but we are not able to verify the targets," he said, adding eight rebels were killed by pro-Kadhafi forces and 22others wounded on Saturday.

A doctor at Misrata`s hospital gave AFP the same death toll for Saturday, saying they included civilians, while putting the number of wounded at 25.

The doctor said the hospital had received three bodies on Sunday, two rebels and a civilian, adding it was possible there could be more fatalities at other medical facilities

On Saturday, residents who used boats to flee Misrata, which has been besieged by Kadhafi forces for the past month and a half, said conditions were dire there.

"There is not a word in the dictionary to describe this. `Disaster` is not enough," one captain, Ali Spak, whose boat was part of a maritime lifeline between Misrata and the rebellion`s eastern stronghold of Benghazi.

In Brussels, an an alliance official confirmed to AFP that NATO warplanes had destroyed 11 regime tanks on the road to the eastern Libyan town of Ajdabiya and another 14 tanks near Misrata on Sunday.

"As of noon today, NATO air strikes have taken out 11 tanks on the road to Ajdabiya and strikes will continue through the day and tonight," the official said on condition of anonymity.(*)

(U.KR-PPT/B002)

Editor: Ruslan Burhani
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