Gaddafi shelled rebels held Libyan port of Misrata and rebels sought to also take the airport, while the sides fought a seesaw battle for the control of a passage to the Tunisian border.
Powerful explosions rocked Tripoli a few minutes from the other end Thursday as NATO planes flew over the city, and witnesses said rising smoke from the district of Ain Zara, in the Southeast a frequent target of NATO air strikes.
The Italy military participated in his first raid on the Libya, triggering an outcry in the first Minister Silvio Berlusconi coalition partner, the Northern League.
A pair of tornado jets took off from Sicily equipped with "selected targets"-strike precision guided munitions, a Defence Ministry official said without revealing details.
Rebels in Misrata earlier saying they had confidence victory was "very close" in the strategic city, but they were still under a fire murderer Thursday evening.
A medical source told AFP that fire rocket and mortar was striking the city regularly in the evening and that by autour 8: 00 am (1800 GMT), at least nine people were killed and another 30 woundedalmost all civilians.
The previous night, Khalid Azwai, head of the local transition Committee, said "our freedom fighters were able to defeat the soldiers of (leader Libyan Moamer) Kadhafi" by forcing them to Misrata.
"They managed to force them to leave, but not very far away." This is why Gaddafi strives to bombard the port, "he says.
The rebel fighters, supported by the NATO strike air, said earlier that they had led the troops of Gaddafi out of reach of the missile from the port, a conduit of support for the city of half a million people under siege for more than seven weeks.
"Gaddafi large forces" were concentrated in the airport a few kilometres west of the city, the rebel army Chief Ibrahim Bet-Almal said, noting "cooperation between (his) forces and NATO."
"We are trying to clean this area" on the outskirts of the city, which was rocked by continuous explosions Wednesday evening as missiles and rockets fell randomly, he said.
The Thursday night bombing has been described as random, with two women and three children among those killed in the district of Eastern Grara.
In other developments in Misrata, a prosecutor said Government forces had abducted more than 500 persons listed as missing.
"More than 500 people are listed to the missing right now, and the number going every day," said Tareq Alwash. "I think that many people have not been able to report other missing because they cannot communicate with us."
Alwash said "many young people" is among the missing persons, "generally aged between 10 and 20...". "and some women". The youngest was appointed as nine years Zacharia Ahmad.
In the West of the Libya, the situation for a position in the Tunisian border was fluid in the middle of the fighting.
On Thursday night, hours after Gaddafi forces had returned to the position of rebels Dehiba which he had seized on 21 April, the new insurgents captured in clashes that killed eight loyalist soldiers, said sources.
Libyan side of the border, the rival camps have exchanged artillery fire in early evening, causing panic among civilians, a witness told AFP.
Several ambulances of Tunisia crossed the Libya to evacuate the injured, said witnesses.
Earlier, witnesses said rebels had fled to Tunisia, pursued by their enemies for a distance of about a kilometer (one-half mile).
"The situation is very confusing and it fought on both sides of the border," the military source said, adding that Tunisian troops were "involved" without developing.
A witness said Tunisian troops arrested fighters on both sides of the conflict, but which could not be confirmed.
A Tunisian police source, said 5150 people had crossed from Libya in Tunisia to Dehiba within 48 hours as fierce fighting raged.
During this time, said rebel forces Gaddafi had taken the Al-Kufra, 600 kilometres (375 miles) of Eastern stronghold of rebels in Benghazi, in South-East of the country bordering Chad, Sudan, and the Egypt.
There was "no loss" as rebels withdraw after "put a slight resistance," the source said, adding that Kadhafi forces were "now in the" control of three-quarters of the city.
In Brussels, rebel military Chief Abdulfatah Yunis, formerly of the Gaddafi Interior Minister, has urged the West to deliver heavy weapons and warned that strong man could use mustard gas on them to stay in power.
"Kadhafi is desperate now." Unfortunately, it has about 25 percent of its chemical weapons, which perhaps it will use, since it is in a desperate situation, "Younis told a press conference."
In Paris, the French jets military said were dropping inert bombs filled with concrete instead of explosives to destroy the tanks of Gaddafi without killing civilians.
Spokesman Thierry Burkhard denied rumours that the use of 300 kg (660 lb) training devices was motivated by a shortage of real bombs, adding that the first such strike crushed an armoured vehicle Tuesday.
"The objective of this munition... is to use the effect of the impact while limiting the risk of collateral damage," said Burkhard. "" "". This is a very precise strike. It is is not, or very little, shrapnel thrown. ?
During this time, in what was a volte-face, Rome said Monday it would participate in air strikes with a coalition led by NATO against the regime of Kadhafi.
The Government stated exclude operations on the ground, was intensifying its contribution after that of fighting within claimed many civilian victims Misrata.
"We're going worse," said heavyweight Northern League Minister to legislative simplification, Roberto Calderoli and right.
The Berlusconi coalition partner strongly objected to air on the Libya bombing for fear that they will cause a mass migration towards the Italy, which is already swamped by 30,000 refugees North Africa, fleeing the disorders it since January.
The decision of the Government is "an error will occur in a wave of immigrants sent by Gaddafi or fuyant war," the Interior Minister and senior member of the League of Northern Roberto Maroni said the Libero daily.
Having secured the port of Misrata, rebel has been strengthened by the arrival of a ship carrying humanitarian supplies, including food and medicines, and at least a loaded boat arm, an AFP journalist.
Othman Belbeisi of the International Organization for migration told AFP that 1091 people were evacuated in Benghazi Thursday despite heavy shelling.
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