As NATO operations entered their second month, the standoff between the regime and rebels west of Benghazi had not budged, and the suffering of the population of Misrata had become the focal point of the war. Qaddafi’s forces were still shelling the city with heavy weapons, including self-propelled artillery, Grad rockets, and cluster bombs fired from 120-millimeter mortars. These cluster bombs killed indiscriminately, and often left behind unexploded yet still lethal “bomblets” that threatened the civilian population even after the shelling had stopped. The civilian death toll mounted.

Continued pressure from NATO bombing and the heroic efforts of the cities’ urban revolutionaries finally yielded some progress by mid-May, pushing regime forces to retreat away from the port back to the town center. On May 14, rebel kata’ib pushed even further, taking the airport and some of the suburbs from which the regime had been shelling the city. From then on, rebels would hold their positions despite continued bombardment. Humanitarian aid flows would increase, and life would slowly start returning to the city.