As rebels prepared to launch an offensive on the town, Nato said in its daily operational update that it had destroyed 11 vehicles mounted with weapons, three logistic military vehicles and one armoured fighting vehicle on Friday.

It also struck two military shelters, a military observation point and a military engineer asset in the vicinity of Sirte, 360 kilometres east of Tripoli.

The strikes follow a bombing raid by British warplanes against a large headquarters bunker in Sirte late Thursday.

The alliance also struck a convoy of 29 armed vehicles that was heading from Sirte to the rebel-held port of Misrata on Thursday.

Qadhafi's whereabouts remain a mystery as rebels hunt him down.

While Nato has regularly struck regime forces in Sirte since launching its bombing campaign in March, an alliance official noted that the town has come into sharp focus because it is one of the last places still under regime control.

Nato warplanes attacked more regime targets near Tripoli on Friday, striking two military facilities, one military storage unit and one surface-to-surface missile launcher, according to the operational update.

In other missions, Nato hit two multiple rocket launchers near the eastern oil hub of Ras Lanuf; one tank near El Assah; a radar and a surface-to-air missile transporter near Okba; and two radars and a surface-to-air missile launcher near al-Aziziyah.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011

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