Holding out under a rain of shelling and sniper fire, Libyan rebels fought Muammar Gaddafi's forces in close-quarters battles in the city centre of Misrata, the last major rebel foothold in western Libya. Seventeen people were killed, an NGO worker and an opposition activist said.
Nato has launched new airstrikes on targets held by Muammar Gaddafi as the rebel movement urged a stronger air campaign that will allow them to advance on Gaddafi's territory.
It's an offer that diplomats hope Muammar Gaddafi's family and top aides can't refuse: If they publicly withdraw support for the Libyan dictator's regime, the restrictions on their assets and travel plans could be made to vanish.
Muammar Gaddafi struck a defiant stance on Thursday after two high-profile defections from his regime, saying he's not the one who should go - it's the Western leaders who have decimated his military with airstrikes who should resign immediately.
Muammar Gaddafi's forces hammered rebels with tanks and rockets, turning their rapid advance into a panicked retreat in a protracted battle on Tuesday.
Defending the first war launched on his watch, President Barack Obama has declared that the United States intervened in Libya to prevent a slaughter of civilians that would have stained the world's conscience and "been a betrayal of who we are."
Rebel forces bore down on Muammar Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte, a key government stronghold where a brigade headed by one of the Libyan leader's sons was digging in to defend the city and setting the stage for a bloody and possibly decisive battle.
In Libya's schools they read and write Gaddafi, reports Borzou Daragahi, of the Los Angeles Times.
Nato ships patrolled off Libya's coast as airstrikes, missiles and energised rebels forced Muammar Gaddafi's tanks to roll back from two key western cities, including one that was the hometown of army officers who tried to overthrow him in 1993.
Muammar Gaddafi's snipers and tanks are terrorising civilians in the coastal city of Misrata, a resident said, while the US military warned it was "considering all options" in response to dire conditions there that have left people cowering in darkened homes and scrounging for food and rainwater.
