At least 10 Grad rockets landed on the town of Zintan, rebel spokesman Abdulrahman told Reuters by telephone. "They were fired by Gaddafi forces positioned north of Zintan," he said.

Berber towns in the Western Mountains, close to the border with Tunisia, have been pounded by government forces after joining the rebellion that erupted two months ago.

"If I had stayed there my two little daughters would have been among the dead," Fatma Douri, 35, who has fled the besieged town of Yafran, said in a refugee camp in the Tunisian border town of Dehiba.

"The siege of the town absolutely has to be lifted, otherwise thousands of children are going to be among the dead in the next few weeks."

Like anti-Gaddafi groups in other parts of Libya, rebels in the Western Mountains want more help from Western warplanes.

Reuters