10 killed in Misrata bombardments

AFP journalists have reported loud explosions in the capital Tripoli - AFP Ten people were killed and 40 wounded when pro-Gaddafi forces pounded the western rebel-held port city of Misrata with Grad rockets, a rebel official told AFP on Friday. Libya\'s opposition  stressed Friday there is no question of allowing Muammar Gaddafi to cling to power, as a Russian envoy said the rebels and the strongman\'s camp have forged multiple contacts.
Two loud blasts meanwhile
shook Libya\'s capital Tripoli following a series of more distant explosions heard earlier in the day, an AFP reporter said.
The Russian envoy, Mikhail Margelov, said in Tunis that Kadhafi\'s representatives have made contact with the Libyan rebels in a number of European capitals, including Berlin, Paris and Oslo.
Contacts have also occurred in other countries, Margelov said after a meeting with Tunisian Foreign Minister Mohamed Mouldi el Kefi.
Margelov had said Thursday after meeting Libyan Prime Minister Baghdadi Mahmudi in Tripoli that talks had taken place between the Kadhafi regime and rebels in Paris only.
France however said Friday it is not overseeing any such talks.
\"If there have been direct contacts, we\'re not involved and we didn\'t set them up,\" French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said in Paris when asked about Margelov\'s comments.
An official of the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) told AFP in the opposition stronghold Benghazi in eastern Libya that their position was unchanged.
\"Kadhafi must go. Anyone from the rebel side who negotiates his staying in power would immediately have an NTC arrest warrant issued against him,\" the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The NTC has not commented officially and Margelov, who last week visited the rebels in Benghazi and who is seeking a mediating role in the Libyan conflict, did not disclose the nature of the supposed talks.
Mahmudi said on Thursday Kadhafi\'s departure was a \"red line\" that cannot be crossed, despite growing international calls for him to quit and the armed insurrection against his 41-year rule.
\"Of utmost concern to us in any dialogue is the unity of Libya,\" Mahmudi told reporters in Tripoli.
Friday\'s blasts in Tripoli came as NATO warplanes constantly overflew the Libyan capital.
The warplanes on Thursday destroyed an apparently empty hotel, the Wenzrik, in central Tripoli near administrative buildings and Libya\'s state broadcaster, an AFP reporter taken to the site said.
Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaaim later denounced what he called a \"barbaric and premeditated raid by NATO on civilians.\"
In a statement on Friday, NATO said key hits the previous day included a surface-to-air missile launcher near Tripoli, seven truck-mounted guns and three tanks near Brega and five truck-mounted guns in the Misrata area.
At least five anti-Kadhafi rebels were killed and 30 wounded when they came under sniper fire in three villages they seized on Wednesday in western Libya, hospital sources said.
The attacks took place in the villages of Zawit Bagoul, Lawania and Ghanymma, the sources said in the western town of Zintan.
The rebels overran the villages as they sought control of a key junction connecting the towns of Yafran and Zintan.
Rebels were seen patrolling the streets of Zawit Bagoul, 20 kilometres (12.5 miles) from Zintan.
The rebels later also moved into Lawania, about seven kilometres away, and then Ghanymma, less than 10 kilometres from Yafran, as NATO aircraft were heard overhead.
In Washington meanwhile, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accused Kadhafi\'s forces of using rape and violence against women as \"tools of war.\"
She said the United States was \"deeply concerned\" by reports of widescale rape in Libya and \"troubled\" by reports that governments across the Middle East and North Africa were using sexual violence to punish protesters.
\"Kadhafi\'s security forces and other groups in the region are trying to divide the people by using violence against women and rape as tools of war, and the United States condemns this in the strongest possible terms,\" she said.
In Geneva, the UN Human Rights Council on Friday extended a probe into alleged violations in Libya, asking investigators to give an update on the situation at the UN body\'s September session.
The UN team of investigators had accused Kadhafi\'s regime of carrying out systematic attacks on the population, saying it committed war crimes and also crimes against humanity.
While it noted fewer reports of violations by the opposition, the commission of inquiry set up by the UN Human Rights Council also found that rebel forces committed acts that constituted war crimes.
However, as the inquiry team was able to visit Libya only for a short period, it had sought an extension of its mandate.