Rebels halt Red Cross mission into Libya's Sirte

Here is a devastating MSNBC report showing what the NTC rebels think of protecting civilians:

SIRTE, Libya — A Red Cross convoy trying to take medical supplies into Libya's besieged city of Sirte had to turn back on Monday because forces seeking to capture the city from fighters loyal to Moammar Gadhafi opened fire on the town.

Aid agencies say Sirte, Gadhafi's hometown, is suffering a humanitarian crisis because civilians are trapped inside by the fighting while food, water, fuel and medical supplies are running out.

"The city is under siege, encircled and the fighting is very fierce," International Committee of the Red Cross spokeswoman Soaade Messoudi in Tripoli told msnbc.com. "The situation is therefore very difficult, especially for civilians still in the city

The ICRC assembled a convoy of two trucks carrying aid, and accompanied by two four-wheel drive vehicles.

The convoy set off from a bridge a few miles west of Sirte, but came to a halt after travelling only about 100 yards because interim government forces started firing into the city.

They fired a heavy barrage of mortars, artillery, rocket-propelled grenades and anti-aircraft weapons just as the convoy was starting to move. The ICRC convoy turned and headed west, away from Sirte.

An anti-Gadhafi commander at the scene, Ismail Al-Sosi, told Reuters: "The rebels secured the way for the International Red Cross to go but as soon as they entered the city they returned because of the (pro-Gadhafi) militias firing."

"We did not start the firing. The militias started the firing," he said.

However, a Reuters team who witnessed the incident said they saw no incoming fire from the Gadhafi loyalists inside Sirte.

On Sunday, medical workers fleeing the city said people wounded in fighting were dying on the operating table because fuel from the hospital generator had run out.

The interim government, the National Transitional Council (NTC), declared a two-day truce to allow civilians to escape, but people emerging from the city said they knew nothing of the ceasefire, and that the shooting had not stopped.

"Doctors start operating, then the power goes. They have a few liters of fuel for the generators, then the lights go out when they operate," said a man who gave his name as Al-Sadiq, who said he ran the dialysis unit at Sirte's main hospital.

ICRC workers who brought medical supplies into Sirte Saturday could not reach the hospital because of shooting.

"It's a catastrophe. Patients are dying every day for need of oxygen," said Mohammed Shnaq, a biochemist at the hospital who fled early Sunday during a lull in the shooting.

"We want to deliver oxygen, which is lacking at the hospital," ICRC spokesman Marcal Izard told Reuters in Geneva.

"But it has to be done carefully, oxygen is very delicate. A stray bullet would be a disaster."

We've covered the backstory of the lack of oxygen in Sirte below. NATO inexplicitly bombed the factory in June.