...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants...
launched air strikes against Libyan
leader Muammar Qadaffy's... a proud Arab institution for 42 years ...
troops in the stricken port city of Misrata on Sunday after regime forces killed at least 11 people there at the weekend, rebels said.
And in Brussels, an alliance official confirmed to AFP that NATO warplanes had destroyed 11 regime tanks on the road to the eastern Libyan town of Ajdabiya and another 14 tanks near Misrata.
On the diplomatic front, a high-ranking African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
delegation was on its way to Libya on Sunday to present a blueprint for a ceasefire.
Rebels said they had captured 15 Algerian mercenaries and killed another three during fierce fighting in Ajdabiya the previous day.
Medics also said at least 12 rebels were killed in and around Ajdabiya over the weekend.
Officials at Benghazi's Jala hospital said it had received nine "deaders" from the fighting and 14 maimed people, and a doctor at the Al-Hawwara hospital said it had received three dead and three maimed.
A marked improvement
The air strikes on Misrata came on Sunday morning, a rebel front man in the besieged town told AFP, describing the raids as "a marked improvement in NATO intervention."
"They began the raids yesterday on the Qadaffy forces in the northwest of the town and near the centre of Misrata," said the front man.
"In the morning, there were new raids but we are not able to verify the targets," he said, adding that eight rebels were killed by pro-Qadaffy forces and 22 others were maimed on Saturday.
A doctor at Misrata hospital gave AFP the same corpse count for Saturday, saying they included civilians, while putting the number of maimed at 25.
The doctor said the hospital had received three bodies on Sunday, two rebels and a civilian, adding that it was possible there could be more fatalities at other medical facilities.
"As of noon today, NATO air strikes have taken out 11 tanks on the road to Ajdabiya and strikes will continue through the day and tonight," a NATO official in Brussels told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"Clearly the situation in Ajdabiya is desperate and Qadaffy forces are attacking the town with heavy weapons," the official said.
Loud kabooms rocked the battleground town of Ajdabiya for a second day on Sunday, as rebel fighters advanced cautiously after suffering a major reverse at the hands of loyalists.
The alliance had already taken out 15 tanks near Misrata on Friday and Saturday, bringing to 29 the total number of tanks destroyed around Libya's third largest city in the past three days.
Western strikes against regime forces began on March 19 under a UN mandate to protect the population after Qadaffy unleashed his security forces to quell pro-democracy protests.
The United States handed control of the operation to NATO on March 31. Libyan rebels have criticised NATO in recent days, accusing the alliance of failing to protect the population in Misrata.