Government forces sent Grad rockets slamming into the depot, which contains vital stores of fuel for cars, trucks, ships and generators powering hospitals and other key sites in a city left darkened by electricity cuts, said witnesses and residents.
Fuel tanks were engulfed in flames hours after the early morning attack, as fire-fighters battled the blazes. No one was injured, a doctor said.
The attack raised fears of shortages, though some of the fuel had already been moved to other sites in anticipation of such a strike.
“After a few days, we may have a big crisis,” said Misrata resident Mohammed Abdullah, speaking by Skype since regular phone lines have been cut. “He wants to bring Misrata’s people to their knees, and make them surrender,” Abdullah said of the Libyan leader. “Surrendering is impossible.”
Some of the heaviest fighting has raged in Misrata, which is of central importance to the rebels as their only major stronghold near the centres of government power in the west of the country. Most of the rebel forces are based in the east.
At Misrata’s hospital, a doctor said today’s bombing could leave them short of a large amount of fuel for generators. He spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
Amnesty International says Qadhafi’s forces may have committed war crimes in Misrata and have used weapons designed for the battlefield and not for residential areas, resulting in civilian casualties and “creating a situation of terror.”
The humanitarian situation is rapidly deteriorating because of regime attempts to tighten its siege and block access by sea, the group said yesterday.
Libyan troops besieging the city of 300,000 by land recently stepped up shelling of Misrata’s port to close the city’s last lifeline. Hundreds of people have been killed in Misrata since February, medics say.
Amnesty said the attempted government blockade of the port has made it even more difficult to bring in supplies.
There is no electricity or running water in large parts of the city, and food supplies are dwindling, it said.
About a week ago NATO warships intercepted several boats laying anti-shipping mines outside Misrata’s harbour.