Libyan government forces fired a hail of rockets into the besieged city of Misurata for the second day in a row, killing at least eight people, a local doctor told Al Jazeera. He said seven other civilians, including children and older people, were wounded in the attacks on Friday. Residents told Al Jazeera around 120 rockets pounded the city. Gaddafi's forces on Friday also opened fire on rebels on the western edge of Ajdabiyah, killing one, rebel fighters said. A rebel manning an anti-aircraft gun was shot dead and two others were wounded in the attack one kilometre from the western gate of Ajdabiyah, the last major town before the rebel stronghold of Benghazi. "They are in vehicles and they are spread out on foot in the desert. It is very hard to track them," Mansour Rachid, a rebel fighter, told Reuters. "They opened fire on us. We have two wounded and one guy was killed." The latest attacks come a day after rebels warned of an impending "massacre" in Misurata by troops loyal to Gaddafi if NATO doesn't neutralise Libyan leader's forces. Gaddafi's forces launched a heavy attack on the coastal city on Thursday, with dozens of Grad-type rockets hitting the city and killing more than 20 people, a rebel spokesman said. Refugee crisis A ship with nearly 1,200 Asian and African migrants, many in bad shape after weeks with little food or water, left the besieged Libyan city of Misrata on Friday for rebel-held Benghazi, an international aid agency said. The chartered Greek vessel, Ionian Spirit, managed to unload 400 tonnes of aid supplies in Misrata overnight despite shelling on Thursday, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said. "It left in the early hours of this morning with nearly 1,200 people on board," IOM spokeswoman Jemini Pandya told Reuters. "Men, women, children and elderly were on board, all dehydrated and weak. Many need medical attention." Misurata, Libya's third-biggest city, has been the scene of major fighting between rebels and Gaddafi's forces for several weeks. "They fired Grads at a residential area called Kasr Ahmad near the port this morning. They fired at least 80 rockets on that area," Abdelbasset Abu Mzereiq told Reuters by telephone on Thursday. He later clarified that those killed had been civilians and not rebel fighters as earlier understood. The death toll from the 90 minute artillery barrage was likely to rise, the spokesman added. "They keep killing civilians. Yesterday we lost five civilians in the shelling and 37 were wounded." Gaddafi loyalists were firing shells on Tripoli Street, a thoroughfare which cuts to the city centre from the western outskirts, witnesses told Al Jazeera. Source: Al Jazeera