Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Hundreds of chanting supporters waved green flags and pledged loyalty to Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi after thunderous explosions believed to be NATO airstrikes pounded targets in the capital.
"I have a message to NATO and to the United Kingdom and France," a man wrapped in a green flag said Saturday night. "We say to them, we will kill you if you come to our land."
Others chanted, "go go Sarkozy," referring to French President Nicolas Sarkozy. France is one of the nations taking part in the coalition airstrikes.
"Everyone here will die for Moammar Gadhafi," a young man said.
The supporters gathered at Gadhafi's compound in the capital hours after NATO apparently hit targets in Tripoli and its outskirts Saturday night.
Libyan forces reacted with anti-aircraft fire.
As the battled raged on in the capital, an opposition member said attacks in the port city of Misrata had taken a new turn.
Loyalists were using bombs that look like perfume bottles, the opposition council member told CNN.
Photographs indicated they were shells fired from a grenade launcher that either did not explode on impact or were deliberately masked and placed in populated areas.
The lethal weapons have blown off people's limbs and killed children, the council member said Saturday.
The report came a day after Human Rights Watch reported its members saw three cluster bombs explode Thursday night in a Misrata neighborhood.
The activist group said it inspected debris and interviewed witnesses about two other apparent cluster bombings.
The Libyan government has denied the use of such bombs, which are banned internationally because of their indiscriminate nature and ability to harm civilians after a conflict ends.
With no signs of an end to the war, immigrants have scrambled to flee the nation.
International Organization for Migration said Saturday that a boat rescued 1,200 migrant workers and their families who had been stranded around the port cit of Misrata.
The area has been bombarded daily by Gadhafi's forces, according to witnesses.
Witnesses have reported dire conditions in the city, including food shortages and the fear of pro-Gadhafi snipers taking aim at anyone walking on the streets.
At least 700 people have died since violence erupted in Misrata two months ago, a medical director said.
Despite weeks of aerial bombardment by international fighter jets, Gadhafi remains defiant and has rebuffed global calls to stop attacks on civilians.
At a news conference in Benghazi, the deputy chairman of Libya's Transitional National Council appealed to the international community to help prevent further tragedy. He said 1.5 million Libyans were under attack every day.
"We already have warned before that the regime was threatening real massacres against innocent civilians," Abdul Hafiz Ghoga told reporters. "The international community is now witnessing what this regime is capable of. The destruction in Misrata and other cities is unacceptable."
NATO has said it needs more precision fighter jets because loyalist maneuvers have made airstrikes much more difficult without harming civilians.
CNN's Reza Sayah, Fred Pleitgen, Saad Abedine, Salma Abdelaziz, Mitra Mobasherat and Hamdi Alkhshali contributed to this report
