jonathan miller of independent television news reports from tripoli. >> reporter: benghazi's wild celebrationsreworks, flares, the old tricolor flag, gunfire, cheering and chanting went on all night and into the new day. it's not deliverance, but for the besieged city, international protection is the next best thing. 3:00 p.m. local time, and in tripoli, a grim-faced musa kusa, former head of intelligence turned foreign minister, made a terse statement. >> ( translated ): therefore, libya has decided an immediate cease-fire... >> reporter: he called for dialogue. the resolution, he said, was a violation of libyan sovereignty, and said it was strange and unreasonable that the u.n. had sanctioned the use of military power. but it's not so strange, given persistenreports, post-cease- fire announcement, that rebel- held misratah, 130 miles east of tripoli, remains under heavy bombardment. the government denies this. we can't authenticate these pictures, but they accord with eyewitness reports. 25 killed, doctors say. so much for the immediate cease- fire. >> they're still shelling. i hope you can

jonathan miller has that story. >> reporter: just four days after the u.n. security council voted unanimously to refer colonel qaddafi and his henchmen to the i.c.c., its prosecutor pledged that anyone found to have committed crimes against humanity in libya would be held to account. >> we'd like to use this opportunity to put them on notice. if forces under their command and control commit crimes, they could be criminally responsible. >> reporter: the prosecutor's investigation will center on events in eight key towns and cities, in the last two weeks of february. in tripoli, he will investigate more than 300 alleged killings of protestors. in benghazi, to the east, 257 killing, and in zawiyah, west of the capital, 124 demonstrators allegedly gunned down. he will also look into other alleged crimes in misratah, ajdabya, al-bayada and derna. today the libyan government dismissed the investigation as "close to a joke." one minister telling an arab tv channel that the court has no power over libya. that's true. libya is not a signatory, but if those now to be

of two reports on the situation inside libya from independent television news, beginning with jonathan miller in tripoli. reporter: 2100 hours last night. more than 10 british warplanes prepare for another bombing run to tripoli. we know now their mission was aborted, their payload of storm shadow missiles returned from libya intact. the reason? intelligence that there were civilians in the target area. well, it's probable that these are the civilians they're referring to, the human shields prepared to die, they say, to protect moammar qaddafi. their carnival of defiance inside the leader's compound bombed by the americans in 1986. last night qaddafi's compound was blitzed again. this time by the brits. very late last night the libyan government brought journalists to inspect the damage. it was an administer's building they were told. thanks be to god, they said, no one dead or injured. they brought us here to show us the damage. we're in the inner sanctum of the leader's compound. they say this is all the evidence they need to show that the coalition is trying to kill qaddafi. britain's mini