WASHINGTON—The Pentagon says the U.S. Air Force has carried out its first Predator missile strike in Libya, the Associated Press reported Sunday.
A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Capt. Darryn James, said the airstrike happened Saturday. He provided no details, AP said.
On Thursday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates disclosed that President Barack Obama had approved the use of armed Predator drones to improve the precision of strikes on Libyan government forces. Predators had previously been used in Libya only for surveillance missions.
Meanwhile, rebel fighters in the besieged Libyan city of Misrata appeared on the cusp of a major victory as they drove fleeing government forces out of the city Saturday after nearly two months of fierce battle.
In the key western Libyan city of Misrata, rebels have seized a crucial building - the highest tower in the city, from which snipers had been firing for several weeks. Video courtesy of AFP.
The rebel gains followed a day of some of the fiercest fighting in weeks, in which at least 25 rebels were killed and over a 100 wounded, according to hospital officials. The wounded were struck down in a fierce bombardment that pounded the city from dawn to about 3 p.m. and in intense urban street battles between rebel fighters and retreating forces of Col. Moammar Gadhafi. But by midafternoon, Col. Gadhafi's guns had fallen silent.
Dozens of pro-Gadhafi soldiers were reportedly killed and captured in Saturday's fighting. Rebels continued to retake hard-fought territory from Col. Gadhafi's forces, in the second straight day of gains.
Col. Gadhafi's forces were driven from the vegetable market on Misrata's Tripoli Street and from a technical school, along with a handful of other buildings, all positions which they had firmly held since March 16.
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Rebel fighters said government forces had pulled back to the Misrata Hospital, a large compound on Misrata's periphery that was closed for renovations when the uprising began.
Rebel fighters said they had surrounded the compound by Saturday afternoon, but said they were holding back because at least 10 civilian families were being held hostage by Mr. Gadhafi's forces there.
"They have withdrawn because they suffered heavy casualties in Misrata and couldn't hold on anymore," said Akram Ali Hameda, a 26-year-old fighter. "Godwilling it's almost over and our victory in the city will be complete within a couple of days."
Mr. Hameda said stepped up NATO air strikes on Gadhafi positions outside Misrata had helped rebels land what they hope will be the decisive blow against Mr. Gadhafi's punishing siege of the city.
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Associated Press
Libyan rebel fighters run across a street in the besieged city of Misrata Saturday.
On Friday, NATO air strikes in the Misrata southern suburb of Dufan destroyed a massive convoy of Gadhafi Land Cruisers carrying soldiers and arms toward Misrata overnight, Mr. Hameda said. On Thursday, he said 30 tanks had been destroyed.
"It was a huge help," he said.
After nightfall on Saturday, NATO planes could again be heard overhead along with massive explosions in the distance which suggested NATO was keeping the pressure on Col. Gadhafi's forces in the city.
Several wounded, captured Gadhafi fighters were brought through the hospital in Misrata on Saturday. One paramedic returning from a trip to the frontlines said 39 Gadhafi fighters had been killed by rebels in one portion of Tripoli Street. He said rebels destroyed seven Gadhafi tanks and armored vehicles in the same spot.
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Reuters
A rebel fighter stands with his weapon at the front line along the western entrance of Ajdabiya on Saturday.
Some of Misrata's residents who had fled sections of the city controlled by Mr. Gadhafi's forces returned to their homes for the first time in weeks on Saturday.
The large number of wounded overwhelmed Misrata's main hospital, forcing doctors to transform a second parking lot tent into a makeshift emergency room.
Stretchers with patients in critical condition backed up in a line that stretched out the hospital's side doors waiting for a space on one of two elevators to take them into the Intensive Care Unit or operating room.
Write to Charles Levinson at charles.levinson@wsj.com
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