Fierce fighting continued on Monday in Zlitan, 80 miles east of Tripoli, as forces loyal to Colonel Gaddafi resisted rebel forces advancing towards the Libyan capital.
As opposition fighters seized control of much of Tripoli, government forces counter-attacked in Zlitan, a town rebels captured on Friday.
Government forces, dug in along a line of hills south of Zlitan, fired a barrage of shells, killing a six-year-old child and wounding his three-year-old brother.
The three-year-old, Mohammed Halifa, was lying in a cot in Misrata's Mujamma Aledat hospital on Monday morning with both arms and hands bandaged, and a dressing on a wound caused by a shell splinter in the abdomen. He was sedated but appeared confused, trying to move his heavily bandaged arms and mouthing words.
"He was in the house when the hound [mortar] came in," said surgeon Dr Mohammed Ahmed. "I don't know why he [Gaddafi] is still killing. Gaddafi is lost, but these people are still killing. I don't know why." Ahmed said the boy's injuries did not appear life threatening.
Sources in Misrata, the base of the rebel force fighting in Zlitan, had earlier said they hoped to send a unit across the lines to meet government forces and negotiate their surrender.
But such plans appeared to be on hold on Monday afternoon as rebel reinforcements in black painted jeeps mounted with machine guns and recoilless rifles drove at speed up the main highway to Zlitan.
Misrata, along with Benghazi, had seen a night of wild celebrations. Fireworks and machine gun fire into the air started late on Sunday in reaction to news that rebel forces had entered Tripoli. Hospital officials said nine people were treated for minor burns from fireworks, some of which exploded amid the crowds.
Misrata military council confirmed that a unit of 200 rebel fighters landed by sea in Tripoli over the weekend, bringing weapons and ammunition for rebel fighters and including a team of medics.
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