Revolutionary fighters fire weapons from a launch mounted on a vehicle in Sirte, Libya, Friday, Sept. 30, 2011. (Photo: AP)
A truckload of supplies and two cars carrying a group of Europeans aid workers from the International Committee of the Red Cross were seen at a checkpoint manned by anti-Gaddafi fighters about 2 km from the centre of Sirte.
The foreign workers refused to comment but some commanders of forces loyal to the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) said they would try to allow them inside the city.
"There is a pause (in shelling) so families can leave...We are trying to coordinate with the Red Cross," Khaled Al-Nas told Reuters.
Sirte is one of only two main remaining holdouts for pro-Gaddafi forces and the NTC has failed to take it with several assaults in the past two weeks.
The fighting has prevented aid groups from entering.
The United Nations and humanitarian organisations such as the ICRC have warned that there may be civilian casualties in the city and the living conditions are dire.
Doctors at a field hospital outside Sirte told Reuters that one woman died of malnutrition there and that they have seen other such cases.
Several civilians leaving Sirte and a spokesman for Gaddafi have blamed NATO airstrikes and NTC shelling for killing civilians.
NATO and the NTC deny that and, along with some other civilians leaving the town, say that pro-Gaddafi forces pose the biggest threat to civilians, executing those they believe to sympathise with the new government.
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