Libya threatens ships taking humanitarian aid to Misurata

TRIPOLI, Libya - The Libyan government threatened Friday toattack ships carrying humanitarian aid into Misurata, on the sameday that NATO said it had intercepted Libyan government vesselstrying to lay anti-ship mines in the harbor.

"This is another demonstration of [Moammar] Gaddafi trying tocompletely ignore humanitarian law," said Brig. Gen Rob Weighill,speaking via the Internet from the Naples headquarters of NATO'sOperation Unified Protector. The Libyan vessels were driven back bythe threat of a NATO attack, he said.

Libya's government says the port, which it has repeatedlyshelled, is also being used by the rebels to deliver arms and"terrorists" to Misurata.

"We will not allow weapons and supplies to come from the seaportto the rebels," government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said at a newsconference. "The port is under our control range. No one can move ifwe don't want them to be there."

Ibrahim said the government would consider requests frominternational organizations to evacuate thousands of foreign migrantworkers stranded there but would not allow deliveries.

"We cannot accept people coming with ships that we cannot searchand investigate," he said, adding that aid groups had to deal solelywith Libya's sovereign government, not a rebel force.

"Any attempt to enter the port will be attacked, regardless ofthe justifications," Libyan state television said.

Ibrahim said the government was working with the United Nationsand the Red Cross to open a land corridor to deliver aid toMisurata, although it has repeatedly declined to offer any pause inthe shelling of the city for aid to be delivered.

Hundreds of people have died in the siege from indiscriminategovernment shelling of residential areas. On Friday, the Libyan armyused tanks to fire on the city, killing 15 people and wounding morethan 50 more, said Aiman Abu Shahma, a member of the city's medicalcouncil.

Rebel spokesman Mohamed Ali said the government was overstatingits ability to prevent aid being delivered and described the threatas "a sign of desperation."

Elsewhere, fighting spilled over Libya's western border for asecond day Friday, with forces loyal to Gaddafi crossing into aTunisian town, wounding several civilians with what witnessesdescribed as indiscriminate gunfire and prompting an angry reactionfrom the government in Tunis.

Government troops battled rebels for control of the Libyancheckpoint at Wezen, then apparently fled across the border and intothe Tunisian town of Dehiba, a day after a similar cross-borderflight by rebels.

In Dehiba, they clashed again with rebels there, as well as withlocal residents and Tunisian soldiers, before surrendering.Residents told Reuters news agency that shells had also fallen onthe town.

Tunisia summoned Libya's ambassador to protest the incursions,saying several people had been hurt, including a young girl.

"We summoned the Libyan envoy and gave him a strong protest,because we won't tolerate any repetition of such violations,"Tunisia's deputy foreign minister, Radhouane Nouicer, said on al-Jazeera television. "Tunisian soil is a red line, and no one isallowed to breach it."

Control of the border post on the Libyan side has swung back andforth during the conflict, falling to the rebels a week ago beforegovernment forces regained control Thursday. By Friday morning,rebels said they were back in charge of what is an importantlifeline for them, to towns and villages they control in the remoteWestern Mountains.

"Gaddafi forces are no longer in Dehiba. They were defeated," awitness who gave his name as Akram told the Associated Press.

Tunisia toppled its own long-standing leader, Zine el-Abidine BenAli, in a revolution in January that inspired similar uprisingsthroughout the Middle East, and many Tunisians are sympathetic toLibya's rebels.

The Libyan troops were later taken back across the border,Tunisia's Defense Ministry said. The main crossing between Tunisiaand Libya, on the coast a two-hour drive to the north, remainsfirmly under Libyan government control.

Cody reported from Paris.