Misrata pounded, NATO to step up strikes

Moammar Gadhafi's military machine pounded the western city of Misrata again on Tuesday as France and Britain called for beefed up NATO airstrikes to stop such attacks on the Libyan people.

Witnesses reported heavy shelling in central Misrata, besieged for weeks and the scene of some of the worst fighting in the Libyan conflict. Abu Bakr, a medical worker who did not want his full name used for security reasons, said shells were hitting very close to a makeshift clinic in the city center. He said at least 10 people were injured, maybe more. Rebel fighter Moaath al-Misrati told CNN the shelling came after rebels killed several of Gadhafi's snipers. "We are expecting a ground offensive by the Gadhafi forces any time now," he said.

The witnesses said all telephone communications, including mobile service, had been cut. British Foreign Secretary William Hague and French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe both called Tuesday for NATO to get more aggressive in Libya. "We must maintain and intensify our efforts in NATO," Hague told reporters in Brussels. "A huge amount has been achieved in Libya but clearly there is more to be done." Juppe said NATO needs to fully embrace the role it accepted -- to protect Libyan civilians from Gadhafi's forces. "NATO wanted to take charge of the military operations, we accepted it," Juppe said on France Info radio. "It has to carry out its role today, which means to prevent Gadhafi from using heavy weapons to bombard the population." Specifically, Juppe mentioned the attacks on Misrata, where on Monday, at least five civilians -- including two toddlers, a 75-year-old man and an Algerian worker -- were killed and more than 20 people wounded in mortar attacks, according to witnesses.

Meanwhile, Libya's most high-profile defector flew from Britain to Qatar Tuesday for talks on how to break the deadly impasse in his nation. Former Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa flew to the Qatari capital, Doha, to meet with government officials and Libyan opposition leaders ahead of the first meeting Wednesday of the Libyan Contact Group, formed in London last month and charged with implementing United Nations resolutions. In an earlier interview with the BBC, Koussa had expressed concern that the situation in Libya was spiraling downward into a grinding war in the vein of the conflict in Somalia. Koussa, who fled Libya last month and sought safe haven in Britain after resigning his post in Gadhafi's regime, urged all parties to avoid plunging Libya into a civil war. "This will lead to (much bloodshed), and Libya will be a new Somalia," Koussa told the BBC. Koussa, a longtime Gadhafi confidant and a former Libyan intelligence chief, "The solution in Libya will come from the Libyans themselves through discussion and democratic dialogue."

An African Union attempt at forging peace fell flat when rebel leaders Mustafa Abdul Jalil and Abdul Hafiz Ghoga rejected it on grounds that it did not provide any solutions to violence against the Libyan people. Gadhafi had agreed in principle to stop hostilities and allow outside forces to help keep the peace, his government and African Union mediators said Monday in a joint statement after a meeting in Tripoli. The African Union plan announced Monday did not address whether Gadhafi will step down, nor is it binding.

According to the memorandum detailed by Ramtane Lamara, the African Union's commissioner for peace and security, the plan had four elements:

-- An immediate end to all fighting

-- Libyan authorities' cooperation "to facilitate the diligent delivery of humanitarian assistance"

-- The protection of foreign nationals in Libya

-- The start of talks involving various Libyan authorities, including opposition figures, with the aim of setting up "an inclusive transition period" to adopt and implement "political reforms necessary for the elimination of the causes of the current crisis"

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Monday that Washington is still "waiting to get a full readout" from participants in the African Union's peace mission in Libya. "We've made it very clear that we want to see a cease-fire," Clinton said. But she said there also must be, among other things, a resumption of water, electricity and other services to Libyan cities that have been "brutalized by Gadhafi's forces." She also reiterated the U.S. position that Gadhafi needs to step down from power.