NATO airstrikes have rocked Libya's desert town of Bani Walid, one of the last remaining strongholds for Moammar Gadhafi's supporters.

News organizations say loud explosions were heard over the town on Saturday, after allied aircraft roared overhead.

Meanwhile, a VOA correspondent ) near the town says provisional government fighters have been going house-by-house in an effort to root out snipers. She says heavy artillery fire can be heard from the scene.

The National Transitional Council fighters pushed into the town on Friday — a day ahead of a deadline they had set for Mr. Gadhafi's loyalists to surrender. The NTC says its fighters moved in after loyalists fired a barrage of rockets at their positions on the outskirts of the town.

The provisional government says at least three of its fighters have been killed.

NTC fighters are also battling loyalists in Mr. Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte.

Meanwhile, Interpol issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Gadhafi, his son Saif al-Islam and Libya's former intelligence chief on Friday.

The international police agency said it issued a “red notice” calling on all countries to help locate the three men and place them under arrest. Their current whereabouts are unknown.