Eyewitness: Home-made weapons no match for Gaddafi onslaught

WITH A deafening crash the rocket smashed into the pavement sending a flail of shrapnel into the air. Passers-by screamed and took cover in nearby shops.

Residents of Misrata thought they had left behind them the horrors of Grad missiles falling on their homes, streets and shops.

When rebels drove Col Gaddafi forces to the perimeters of the besieged west Libyan city in May, the shelling that had held the city captive all but ended. In past days new rockets have begun to threaten once again. A salvo of three killed a child in the residential area of al-Rwaisat on Monday evening.

In more than a month of fighting the front lines to the east, west and south of the city, roughly 35km outside of the city centre, have held. In a lethal back and forth, rebels have ventured into enemy territory and returned, and regime soldiers have fronted offensives without breaking through. Dozens have died, but the front lines remain the same.

The renewed shelling of the city, say rebel commanders, indicates the use of newer and better weapons by the regime.

"Gaddafi men are using long range, very accurate Lunar rockets," said rebel forces commander Salah Badi. The head is modified with explosive ball bearings, and the lighter rocket has a longer range. "They can be fired from over 40km away," said Mr Badi.

The shelling is not the barrage that fell on the city in April and May, but it indicates once again civilians are under threat. Last week a woman was killed and her two children injured in their home.

Rebels have spoken with bravado of "reaching Zlitan", the next town on the road to Tripoli. But on the rebel sides weapons are increasingly scant.

Mohammed Misrati has spent three months converting damaged but unexploded munitions fired by regime forces into weapons fit for the rebel war. His modest family home is laden with lethal devices. Sitting on his bed, he fills a line of shotgun cartridges with a newer, more lethal gunpowder lifted from an unexploded Katyusha rocket.

"My grandfather did this when the Italians came to occupy Libya. My father used dynamite to remove chunks of cliff from a mining site," said Misrati. He loaded a little gunpowder in the palm of his hand, and set it alight. The explosive flame puffed in his palm. "My grandfather would make bullets, bombs, and steal weapons from the Italians."

The adaptation of weaponry and the limited supplies of rifles that exist in the city may have been adequate for urban street battles, but they are not for the new front lines.