Sirte exodus as Red Cross warns of medical emergency

Streams of civilians fled Muammar Gaddafi's besieged home town of Sirte as the international Red Cross warned of a medical emergency and the battle for the fugitive strongman's bastion raged today.

An AFP reporter at a mosque field hospital west of the city said hundreds of Sirte residents were fleeing in packed vehicles, with some people sitting on top of possessions piled high in the rear of pick-ups.

"There are so many rockets now. Yesterday there were a lot of attacks. We just could not stay any longer," Ali Faraj said as a National Transitional Council fighter checked his identity and those of women and children crammed in his car.

A Red Cross team, which delivered desperately needed supplies to medics in the besieged coastal city yesterday, said the hospital had come under rocket fire as new regime forces stepped up their assault on Gaddafi diehards.

A large force of NTC fighters pushed in from the south to lay siege to the Ouagadougou Conference Centre, a showpiece venue close to the Ibn Sina hospital where Gaddafi hosted the launch of the African Union.

Intense exchanges raged for at least two hours despite pleas from the Red Crescent for a lull while the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) team made its delivery on yesterday, NTC fighters said.

"It's a dire situation," ICRC team leader Hichem Khadhraoui told AFP.

Staff at the Ibn Sina hospital told the team that "because of lack of oxygen and fuel for the generator, people are dying."