DEHIBA, Tunisia- artillery shells fired by forces loyal to Muammar al-Gaddafi Libya fell in Tunisia Saturday as fighting broke out near the border between Libyan troops and rebels anti-Gaddafi.
Schools were evacuated and residents to safety in the Tunisian border town of Dehiba, who was hit several times by stray shells in recent weeks as rival Libyan fighting for control of a nearby border crossing.
Fighting intensified in the region of the mountains in the West of the Libya as Gaddafi loyalists and rebels, supported by NATO bombing, reached deadlock on other fronts of the war in the third largest producer of oil in Africa.
Descriptions of dust and rock marked where at least four missiles hit the Tunisian side.
The battle is for control of the border Dehiba-Wazzin, which gives the rebels a road to the outside world in strongholds in the region of the Western mountains where they are fighting to put an end to the rule of Gaddafi more of four decades.
The Crackle of small arms could be heard for about 4 km (2.5 miles) in the Libya, where the rebels and loyalists exchanged gunfire, but the border post remained open - most of the cars carrying refugees fleeing fighting.
"We are very afraid." The missiles are falling right around us, we know not what to do, "said Tunisian Mohammed Naguez, a resident of Dehiba." "Our children are afraid." The Tunisian authorities have stop this. ?
Although the rebels Dehiba-Wazzin border point, forces Gaddafi are subject to a lot more to the North.
BERBERS
Most of the people in the mountains of the West belong to the Berber ethnic group and is distinguished from other Libyan.
They have increased up to two months ago and say the towns Zintan and Yafran are shelled repeated forces of Gaddafi, running short of food, water and medicine.
Rebels were assisted by the air strikes of NATO against loyalist heavy weapons, but it was not sufficient to give them a decisive advantage.
Last week, fighting to the Tunisian border crossed Dehiba himself, drawing protests furious in Libya with the Tunisia authorities. Tunisian soldiers put in place a blockade and patrol in the Dehiba Saturday after fighting resumed.
More than 30,000 Libyan refugees crossed the mountains of the West in Tunisia, where many are hosted by local families.
Sympathy for the Libyan rebels tends to be strong in Tunisia, where the eviction of an authoritarian President in January after 23 years in power led uprisings in Libya and in the Arab world.
Western powers are trying to go beyond NATO bombings against troops loyal to Qadhafi to find other ways to help a popular uprising eastern Libya its control, but at a standstill then.
The bombing the bomb and the imposition of a no-fly zone, both intended to protect civilians, had not prevented scores were killed in attacks by Government on the remaining pockets of rebellion in the West of the Libyaincluding the cities under siege from Misrata and Zintan, in the mountains of the West.
Amnesty International said Friday that the attacks indiscriminate on Misrata, including the use of snipers, bombs, cluster munitions and artillery in civilian areas, may constitute war crimes.
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