Libyan rebels have captured the strategic Misrata airport after a fierce battle with Muammar Gaddafi's troops, marking their first significant advance in weeks.
The airport of Libya's third-largest city, which had been under siege by loyalist forces for almost two months, fell to the rebels after fighting that lasted through the night.
By this afternoon, insurgent fighters were in full control, as people celebrated the victory in the streets and others set ablaze tanks left behind by Gaddafi's troops.
The airport's capture is significant, as the rebel-held city had been nearly cut off from the outside world, with the port, which has been a repeated target of shelling, being the only route in or out.
Human rights groups have warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in the city of 500,000 people, facing severe shortages of food and medical supplies.
Insurgent forces captured 40 Grad rockets from the regime troops, whose mortar fire had wounded 13 rebels.
A spokesman for the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) in Benghazi confirmed that Misrata airport had been captured.
'We took full control of Misrata airport and pushed back Gaddafi forces around 15 kilometres from the airport,' said Abdel Busin.
'The airport is in our control but is not free because it is still within range of Grad rockets,' he added.
Elsewhere, Gaddafi forces killed at least two rebels and wounded 15 near the rebel-held town of Zintan in the western mountains.
Rebel fighters came under attack from snipers when they entered Rya Ina village, about 15km east of Zintan.
In one case, snipers fired on an ambulance transporting a wounded person, but there were no casualties.
Meanwhile, Libyan state television showed footage of Muammar Gaddafi meeting and talking with what it said were tribal leaders in a Tripoli hotel.
Gaddafi has not appeared in public since 30 April, when a NATO air strike on a house in the capital killed his youngest son and three of his grandchildren.
Gaddafi was wearing his brown burnous and sunglasses. An old man told him: 'You will be victorious.'
There was no date stamp on the footage, and no independent confirmation that the meeting took place today.
