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Tuesday, 23 August, 2011, 5:8 ( 3:8 GMT )
Editorial/OP-ED




Summary of the American and International Press on the Libyan Revolution - Morgan Strong
21/08/2011 11:11:00
Libyan Rebels Say They Are Attacking Tripoli

(AP) - Libyan rebels said they launched their first attack on Tripoli in coordination with NATO late Saturday, and Associated Press reporters heard unusually heavy gunfire and explosions in the capital. The fighting erupted just hours after opposition fighters captured the key city of Zawiyah nearby.

Gun battles and mortar rounds were heard clearly at the hotel where foreign correspondents stay in Tripoli. NATO aircraft made heavy bombing runs after nightfall, with loud explosions booming across the city.

"We planned this operation with NATO, our Arab associates and our rebel fighters in Tripoli with commanders in Benghazi," Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, the head of the rebel leadership council, told the Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera. Benghazi, hundreds of miles east of Tripoli, is the rebels' de facto capital.

Abdul-Jalil they said chose to start the attack on Tripoli on the 20th day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which fell on Saturday. The date marks the ancient Islamic Battle of Badr, when Muslims first fought for the holy city of Mecca in A.D. 624.

A couple hours after the rebels said they had attacked Tripoli, state television ran what appeared to be a live audio message by Al Qathafi. He did not appear on television but sounded like he was calling the message in on a poor phone line which crackled at times. He announced the time and date twice to prove that he was speaking live.

Al Qathafi condemned the rebels as traitors and "vermin" who are tearing Libya apart and said they were being chased from city to city - a mirror image of reality.

"Libyans wanted to enjoy a peaceful Ramadan," he said. "Instead they have been made into refugees. What are we? Palestinians?"

Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim appeared on Libyan television to deny there was an uprising in Tripoli. But he acknowledged that there was some kind of unusual activity.

"Sure there were some armed militants who escaped into some neighbourhoods and there were some scuffles, but we dealt with it within a half hour and it is now calm," he said.

The claims from both sides could not immediately be independently verified.

If the rebel did indeed attack Tripoli, it would be the first time in the six-month-old uprising. The rebels made early gains in the revolt, capturing most of the east of the country and rising up in a few other major cities such as Zawiyah and Misurata. But Al Qathafi's forces fought back and until a week ago, the civil war had been mired in a stalemate.

Last weekend, rebels from the western mountains near the border with Tunisia made a dramatic advance into Zawiyah, just 30 miles west of Tripoli, and captured parts of the city.

Al Qathafi appeared increasingly isolated as the fighters advanced closer to Tripoli, a metropolis of 2 million people, from the west, south and east and gained control of major supply roads into the capital.

After hard-fought battles for a week in Zawiyah, the rebels finally wrested the city's oil refinery, central square and hospital from Al Qathafi's forces and drove them out in a major victory on Saturday that clearly swung momentum in their favour.

Hours later, the attack on Tripoli was claimed.

Col. Fadlallah Haroun, a military commander in Benghazi, said the battles marked the beginning of Operation Mermaid - a nickname for Tripoli. He also said the assault was coordinated with NATO. Haroun told the AP that weapons were assembled and sent by tugboats to Tripoli on Friday night.

"The fighters in Tripoli are rising up in two places at the moment - some are in the Tajoura neighbourhood and the other is near the Maitiga (international) airport," he told the Arabic satellite channel Al-Jazeera. Tajoura has been known since the beginning of the uprising in February as the Tripoli neighbourhood most strongly opposed to Al Qathafi's regime.

Earlier Saturday, the government organised a trip for reporters to the airport to show them it was still in government hands.

A representative for Tripoli on the rebel leadership council told the AP that rebels were surrounding almost every neighbourhood in the capital, and there was especially heavy fighting in Fashloum, Tajoura and Souq al-Jomaa.

Those three neighbourhoods have been bubbling with discontent ever since the beginning of the Libya uprising. They paid the highest price in deaths when protesters took the streets in anti-Al Qathafi protests, only to be met with live ammunition by government militiamen.

"We don't have exact numbers yet, but we are hearing that many fighters have fallen - very likely over 100," said Mohammed al-Harizi.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman visited Benghazi on Saturday.

"Al Qathafi's days are numbered," he said. "The best case scenario is for Al Qathafi to step down now ... that's the best protection for civilians."

In Benghazi, there were thousands celebrating in the main city square, shooting fireworks and guns into the air, and waving the rebel tricolor flag.

They got support from Abdul-Salam Jalloud, a close Al Qathafi associate who defected Friday. Speaking on Al-Jazeera TV from Italy, he told the people of Tripoli, "You must rise up all together, at once," and called on Al Qathafi's forces to join the opposition. "The decisive moment is approaching," he said. "You are protecting a clinically dead regime."

The taking of Zawiyah, a city of 200,000, cleared the last major hurdle to a rebel march on Tripoli from the west. Rebels said Al Qathafi's troops put up little resistance before fleeing their posts in Zawiyah's hospital and multi-storey buildings around the main square - another sign suggesting that the Libyan dictator's 42-year-old regime is crumbling.

Trucks and cars packed with rebels as well as civilians drove around Zawiyah's central square, honking horns, flashing V-for-victory signs and yelling "Allahu akbar" or "God is great!"

An ambulance crew posed for photos on the sidewalk while a rebel called through a loudspeaker on his truck, "Zawiyah is liberated!"

Still, regime troops kept firing rockets and mortars at the city from positions in the east even after rebels said they drove them out, and thunderous booms echoed across the city. The central hospital was hit by mortar rounds early Saturday, several hours after it was taken by rebels.

The attack badly damaged the operating rooms, punching a hole into one of the outer walls. Metal slats from the ceiling were strewn across the floor, and soot-covered the operating tables.

Rebels also claimed that they captured the city of Zlitan, 90 miles (140 kilometres) southeast of Tripoli, after more than two months of fighting.

"Zlitan is now completely liberated after a severe fight, and for the first time I can say we have control over it," Bani told reporters Saturday.

In Zawiyah, fighters were bogged down around the central square for much of the week, held back by mortar, rocket and anti-aircraft fire from Al Qathafi's troops. However, on Friday afternoon, rebel reinforcements arrived and pushed toward the square and the hospital, driving out regime forces before nightfall, said 21-year-old rebel fighter Mohammed Abu Daya.

The rebels said Saturday that they were now driving Al Qathafi's forces even farther east, toward the village of Jedaim on the outskirts of Zawiyah.

Al Qathafi's forces fired rockets and mortars at the city, killing a doctor his wife and their 9-month-old baby when a mortar hit their home, medics said.

Zawiyah's main square was covered with traces of the recent fighting. Nearly every window in the surrounding hotel, banks and government office buildings was shattered, and bullet and shrapnel holes marred every wall. Shelling had collapsed two floors of one of the five buildings near the square that had been used as Al Qathafi sniper positions.

The dead bodies of two government fighters lay in the square's central plaza, covered by blankets. Rebels held their breath as they passed the bodies, which some said had been there for days.

Zawiyah native Faiz Ibrahim, 42, took great pleasure in walking safely through his hometown's central square. Ibrahim, trained as an engineer, had taken up arms to defend the city early in the uprising, but went underground when Al Qathafi's forces retook the town. He came out of hiding as soon as rebels from the south entered the city.

"We praise God that we can come here now that we have liberated the square," he said, his Kalashnikov rifle over his shoulder. "We have to see all the destruction that it took to get them out."

"Zero hour" for Al Qathafi as besieged Tripoli rises up

(Reuters) - Explosions and gunfire rocked Tripoli through the night as opponents of Muammar Al Qathafi rose up in the capital, declaring a final push to topple the Libyan leader after a six-month war reached the city's outskirts.

A defiant Al Qathafi said an assault by "rats" had been repelled.

"Those rats ... were attacked by the masses tonight and we eliminated them," Al Qathafi said in an audio message broadcast over state television early on Sunday.

"I know that there are air bombardments but the fireworks were louder than the sound of the bombs thrown by the aircraft."

Intense gunfire erupted after nightfall. Reuters journalists in the centre of the capital said it subsided somewhat after several hours, but bursts of machine-gun fire and explosions could still be heard in the pre-dawn hours, indicating fighting in several neighbourhoods.

"The zero hour has started. The rebels in Tripoli have risen up," Abdul Hafiz Ghoga, vice-chairman of the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC), based in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, told Reuters.

Al Qathafi's influential former number two, Abdul Salam Jalloud, who defected to the rebel cause a day earlier, appeared on Al Jazeera by Internet video link and called on the capital to rise against "the tyrant."

"Tonight you claim victory over fear," he said. An NTC official, Mohammed al-Allaqi, said Jalloud was in Rome.

The clashes inside the capital triggered massive street celebrations in Benghazi as well as elsewhere in the country and in the capital of neighbouring Tunisia.

Al Qathafi's information minister said the rebel incursion into the city had been quickly put down.

Rebel advances on Tripoli have transformed the war since they seized the city of Zawiyah on Tripoli's Western outskirts a week ago, cutting the capital off from its main road link to the outside world and putting unprecedented pressure on Al Qathafi.

Before dawn, state television showed Al Qathafi's son Seif al-Islam addressing what it called a youth conference. A roomful of supporters broke into occasional chants and applause as he declared that the rebels would be defeated.

"The revolt in Libya will not succeed. You will never see us as Libyans surrender and raise the white flag: that is impossible. This is our country and we will never leave it."

Fighting rages

Fighting was still raging after midnight around Maitiga airbase in Tripoli's Tajourah district, an area said to be under rebel control, an opposition activist told a Reuters journalist outside Libya.

The gun battles left a number of rebels dead in the suburb of Qadah and elsewhere, along with at least three pro-Al Qathafi soldiers in the Zawiyat al-Dahmania district of Tripoli, he said.

A Tripoli resident told Reuters that Muslim clerics in parts of Tripoli had called on people to rise up, using the loudspeakers on minarets. The resident said the call went out around the time people were breaking their Ramadan fast.

"We can hear shooting in different places," one resident said. "Most of the regions of the city have gone out, mostly young people ... it's the uprising... They went out after breaking the (Ramadan) fast."

"They are shouting religious slogans: 'God is greatest!'"

Washington says Al Qathafi's days are numbered, and reports have emerged of more defections from his ranks. President Barack Obama, on vacation in Martha's Vineyard, was receiving regular updates on Libya, a senior White House official said.

"If Tripoli eventually falls to the rebels, Al Qathafi's already limited options become even more limited. Pressure on him and his shrinking circle of loyalists has to be taking a serious toll," a senior White House official said.

Rebels said on Saturday they had thwarted an attempt by Al Qathafi's forces to recapture Zawiyah.
"Al Qathafi will try to take back Zawiyah at any price. He will keep shelling the hospital," a rebel fighter said as he prepared for midday prayers in the mosque of Bir Hawisa, a nearby village where many civilians are sheltering. "We will not let that happen. We will fight."

Heavy Fighting Reported in Tripoli; Rebels Encircle City

(N.Y. Times) - For the first time in months, witnesses in Tripoli reported heavy fighting across the capital late Saturday night, even as rebel forces claimed to have encircled the city by taking major towns to its east, west and south.

Rebel leaders in Tunis and eastern Libya hailed the beginning of a new uprising in the capital against Col. Muammar Al Qathafi’s rule. And after months of rebel offences that crumbled or stalled despite heavy support from a NATO air strike campaign, it was the first time since the uprising began in February that the rebels threatened Colonel Al Qathafi’s ultimate stronghold.

“We are coordinating the attacks inside, and our forces from outside are ready to enter Tripoli,” said Anwar Fekini, a rebel leader from the mountainous region in western Libya, speaking by telephone from Tunis. “If you can call any mobile number in Tripoli, you will hear in the background the beautiful sound of the bullets of freedom.”

Phone calls to several Tripoli residents from different neighbourhoods confirmed widespread gunfire and explosions. And there were reports of frequent NATO jet overflights and air strikes - a common accompaniment to the drumbeat of the rebel advance in the past week.

But in an audio message broadcast on state television, his second in a week, Colonel Al Qathafi rejected claims of rebel gains, saying his forces had beaten back the Tripoli uprising within hours and announcing military successes in the same cities rebels had claimed to seize on Saturday.

He gave the date and time several times to confirm that he was speaking as events were unfolding.

“The rebels are fleeing like rats, to the mountains,” Colonel Al Qathafi said.

But even as he described a “collapse” among rebel fighters and NATO forces, he railed at world leaders who were supporting the uprising, accusing them of giving rebels “weapons to destroy our air-conditioners!”

He gave no indication of where he might be speaking from, a topic of increasing speculation in recent days as rumours have swirled of his preparing to flee, or perhaps having already left Libya.

If Colonel Al Qathafi’s location remained unknown, it became increasingly clear Saturday that even his most senior aides were making exits of their own.

The Tunisian state news agency TAPreported Saturday that Libya’s oil minister, Omran Abukraa, had defected to Tunisia, after leaving Tripoli on what was ostensibly a business trip abroad. If confirmed, his defection would be the third of a senior government official in the past week.

Abdul Salam Jalloud, a former Al Qathafi deputy, was reported to have defected Friday. A senior security official, Nassr al-Mabrouk Abdullah, flew to Cairo with his family on Monday.

Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, the chairman of the rebel government, the National Transitional Council, said that he hoped Colonel Al Qathafi and the rest of his inner circle would follow.

“That would be a good thing that will end the bloodshed and help us avoid material costs,” he said. “But I do not expect that he will do that.”

After reports of the Tripoli fighting began, some residents said that a group of rebel fighters had infiltrated the city from the east and were spearheading the uprising, surprising the pro-Al Qathafi forces who had fortified for an attack from the western approach guarded by Zawiyah.

Residents added that in recent weeks rebels had also smuggled weapons into the city by boat to the beaches east of Tripoli to prepare. Their claims could not be independently confirmed.

Meanwhile, rebel forces closing in on the capital made important gains on Saturday. By afternoon, the rebels had driven Colonel Al Qathafi’s forces out of Zawiyah, the strategic oil refinery town 30 miles west of Tripoli. After a week of heavy fighting there, residents began to celebrate in the main square.

The Arab news network Al Jazeera reported that Zlitan, a crucial Al Qathafi barracks town east of Tripoli, also had fallen to the rebels. They captured Gharyan, the gateway to the south, last week.

Farther east, the rebels claimed to have seized the residential areas of the oil port of Brega, a prize that has changed hands many times since the uprising began.

A senior American official said Colonel Al Qathafi’s days “are numbered.”

“It is clear that the situation is moving against Al Qathafi,” Jeffrey D. Feltman, an assistant secretary of state, said after meeting rebel leaders in Benghazi, the rebel capital. “The opposition continues to make substantial gains on the ground while his forces grow weaker.”

Rebel leaders were optimistic. “The end is very near” for Colonel Al Qathafi, said Mr. Abdul-Jalil, the leader of the rebel’s governing council. “We have contacts with people from the inner circle of Al Qathafi,” he said. “All evidence is that the end is very near, with God’s grace.”

Amid worries from the West and humanitarian groups that rebel fighters might seek revenge against Al Qathafi supporters, the rebels’ National Transitional Council said Saturday that it was reissuing a booklet reminding its mostly novice fighters about the international laws of war.

But the battle was hardly over. In the past six months, the rebels have frequently proven unable to hold captured territory, sometimes keeping it no longer than a few days. Government forces were still fighting fiercely outside Zawiyah, and in Brega they controlled the oil refinery.

Tripoli, while under new pressure, remains a Al Qathafi stronghold, as does Sirte, a coastal city to the east, and Sabha to the south. Government officials continued to insist that they would fight to the end.

Still, with rebels virtually surrounding the capital and NATO bombing the city from positions in the Mediterranean, residents were feeling increasingly under siege. The main supply routes were closed, making electricity and fuel scarce. Crime is increasing and garbage is piling up in the streets.

There were also reports that Al Qathafi loyalists were blocking off streets in Tripoli and setting up sniper positions in preparation for battle.

In recent days, members of the so-called Tripoli Brigade, a group of rebel fighters tasked with securing the capital after the fall of the government, were seen heading to a base in Zawiyah.

On Friday, a brigade commander said the unit of roughly 1,000 fighters had been training in the western city of Nalut and expected to be deployed in the coming days.

In Zawiyah, even as Al Qathafi forces continued to shell the city from the outskirts, residents began to emerge from their homes and took in the remains of their city, devastated by the battle for the central Martyrs’ Square.

Three bodies, identified as Al Qathafi soldiers, lay covered in blankets at the edge of a plaza. “Mercenaries,” some residents said, but that was far from certain. The tall grass in the plaza was strewn with green and white government forms that had blown out of rocket holes in a nearby administrative building.

That building, as well as a bank and a hotel, had been used by the Al Qathafi soldiers as snipers’ nests, the rebels said.

The white park benches and paths below were marked with their bullets. On the grounds of the buildings, piles of military gear were left in a sign of a hasty retreat: a green flak jacket, a wooden trunk full of food and a toothbrush.

In a store, the Al Qathafi soldiers had scrawled a message: “Libya wants Muammar Al Qathafi.” All over the square, they left green flags.

The rebels, backed by NATO warplanes, had taken almost a week to drive the snipers out. The hotel, the Jewel, was singed black from a fire on the upper floors. The top of the administrative building had collapsed under the force of a NATO bomb.

In the late afternoon, young men drove into the square and spun their cars around in tight circles, their screeching tires echoing off shattered buildings.

A man watching shook his head in stunned disbelief. “I swear to God,” he said, “freedom is beautiful.”

As Rebels Encircle Tripoli, Al Qathafi’s Hold Seems to Slip

(N.Y. Times) - Rebels encircled the beleaguered Libyan capital on Saturday, claiming to have taken major towns to its east, west and south, leaving only the NATO-patrolled sea to the north.

With residents continuing to stream out of the capital, Tripoli, and reports of the third defection of a major government official in a week, Col. Muammar Al Qathafi’s grip on the country he has ruled for 42 years appeared increasingly tenuous. Rumours swept Libya that he was preparing to flee, if he had not already.

By Saturday afternoon, the rebels had driven Colonel Al Qathafi’s forces out of the strategic oil refinery town of Zawiyah, 30 miles west of Tripoli. After a week of heavy fighting there, residents began to celebrate in the main square.

The Arab news network Al Jazeera reported that Zlitan, a crucial Al Qathafi barracks town east of Tripoli, also had fallen to the rebels. They captured Gharyan, the gateway to the south, last week.

Farther east, the rebels claimed to have seized the residential areas of the oil port of Brega, a prize that had changed hands many times since the uprising began.

A senior American official said Colonel Al Qathafi’s days “are numbered.”

“It is clear that the situation is moving against Al Qathafi,” Jeffrey D. Feltman, an assistant secretary of state, said after meeting rebel leaders in Benghazi, the rebel capital. “The opposition continues to make substantial gains on the ground while his forces grow weaker.”

Rebel leaders were optimistic. “The end is very near” for Colonel Al Qathafi, said Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, leader of the rebel’s governing council. “We have contacts with people from the inner circle of Al Qathafi,” he said. “All evidence is that the end is very near, with God’s grace.”

But the battle was hardly over. In the past six months, the rebels have frequently proven unable to hold captured territory, sometimes keeping it no longer than a few days. Government forces were still fighting fiercely outside Zawiyah, and in Brega they controlled the oil refinery.

Tripoli, while under pressure, remains a Al Qathafi stronghold, as does Sirte, a coastal city to the east, and Sabha to the south. Government officials continued to insist that they would fight to the end.

Still, with rebels virtually surrounding the capital and NATO bombing the city from positions in the Mediterranean, residents were feeling increasingly under siege. The main supply routes were closed, making electricity and fuel scarce. Crime is increasing and garbage is piling up in the streets.

There were also reports that Al Qathafi loyalists were blocking off streets in the city and setting up sniper positions in preparation for battle.

The exodus of government officials appeared to be gaining pace as the Tunisian state news agency reported Saturday that Libya’s oil chief, Omran Abukraa, had defected to Tunisia. The agency, TAP, said he left Tripoli for business in Italy and decided not to return.

If confirmed, his defection would be the third of a senior government official in the past week.

Abdul Salam Jalloud, a former Al Qathafi deputy, was reported to have defected Friday. A senior security official, Nassr al-Mabrouk Abdullah , flew to Cairo with his family on Monday.

Mr. Abdul-Jalil, the chairman of the rebel government, the National Transitional Council, said he hoped that Colonel Al Qathafi and the rest of his inner circle would follow.

“That would be a good thing that will end the bloodshed and help us avoid material costs,” he said. “But I do not expect that he will do that.”

In Zawiyah, even as Al Qathafi forces continued to shell the city from the outskirts, residents began to emerge from their homes and took in the remains of their city, decimated by the battle for the central Martyrs’ Square.

Three bodies, identified as Al Qathafi soldiers, lay covered in blankets at the edge of a plaza. “Mercenaries,” some residents said, but that was far from certain. The tall grass in the plaza was strewn with green and white government forms that had blown out of rocket holes in a nearby administrative building.

That building, as well as a bank and a hotel, had been used by the Al Qathafi soldiers as snipers’ nests, the rebels said. The white park benches and paths below were marked with their bullets. On the grounds of the buildings, piles of military gear were left in a sign of a hasty retreat: a green flak jacket, a wooden trunk full of food and a toothbrush.

In a store, the Al Qathafi soldiers had scrawled a message: “Libya wants Muammar Al Qathafi.” All over the square, they left green flags.

The rebels, backed by NATO warplanes, had taken almost a week to drive the snipers out. The hotel, the Jewel, was singed black from a fire on the upper floors. The top of the administrative building had collapsed under the force of a NATO bomb.

In the late afternoon, young men drove into the square and executed wild, celebratory donuts, spinning their cars in tight circles, their screeching tires echoing off shattered buildings.

A man watching shook his head in stunned disbelief. “I swear to God,” he said, “freedom is beautiful.”

Libyan fighting reaches streets of Tripoli

(Aljazeera.net) - Rebels herald "zero hour" as gunfire and explosions shake Libyan capital and Muammar Al Qathafi urges supporters to fight.

Sustained automatic gunfire and a series of explosions rang out in Tripoli overnight as rebels launched efforts to permanently free the Libyan capital from Muammar Al Qathafi's grasp, according to reports from witnesses and rebels.

Blasts and gunfire rocked the city after sunset on Saturday, and witnesses reported street protests and fighting in the eastern neighbourhoods of Souq al-Jomaa, Arada and Tajoura. Residents took to the streets beginning at around 9pm local time, many of them emerging from mosques and chanting "God is great".

Expatriate Libyans speaking to family members in the capital said their relatives described men going out to protest, some with weapons, while children and women were asked to stay home.
Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said rebels had tried to attack Tripoli but had been "dealt with".

Ibrahim appeared on state television in the early morning hours in Tripoli's central Green Square, riding in a car and surrounded by tens of supporters. Al Qathafi himself never appeared, though he released an audio message congratulating citizens for repelling an attack by "rats".

"Sure, there were some armed militants who escaped into some neighbourhoods and there were some scuffles," Ibrahim said. "But we dealt with it within a half hour and it is now calm."

Ibrahim said that pro-regime volunteers had repelled insurgents' attacks in several neighbourhoods. He dismissed mounting speculation that the regime was on the brink, but more gunfire was heard after he spoke on television.

Gun battles and the explosion of apparent mortar rounds could be heard clearly at the hotel where foreign correspondents stay in the capital. Their movements are tightly restricted by the regime.

NATO bombing runs

In a live audio broadcast aired on state television early on Sunday morning, Al Qathafi congratulated his supporters and accused French President Nicolas Sarkozy of trying to steal the country's oil. He said that the rebels were "bent on the destruction of the Libyan people".


Al Qathafi urged his supporters to "march by the millions" and end a months-long rebellion, which he termed a "masquerade".

Meanwhile, NATO aircraft carried out heavy bombing runs after nightfall. A senior official in the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) said on Sunday that operations in Tripoli were co-ordinated between opponents of Al Qathafi in the city and the rebels in the east.

"The zero hour has started. The rebels in Tripoli have risen up," said Abdul Hafiz Ghoga, vice-chairman of the NTC, in the eastern city of Benghazi.

"There is co-ordination with the rebels in Tripoli. This was a pre-set plan. They've been preparing for a while. There's co-ordination with the rebels approaching from the east, west and south," he said.

Ghoga said NATO warplanes were launching raids to distract Al Qathafi's forces.

"The next hours are crucial. Many of their (pro-Al Qathafi) brigades and their commanders have fled." He added.

'Operation Mermaid Dawn'

Colonel Fadlallah Haroun, a military commander in Benghazi, said the battles marked the beginning of Operation Mermaid Dawn. Tripoli's nickname in Libya is "Bride of the Sea," or mermaid.

Haroun told the AP news agency that weapons were assembled and sent by tugboats to Tripoli on Friday night.

"The fighters in Tripoli are rising up in two places at the moment - some are in the Tajoura neighbourhood and the other is near the Maitiga (international) airport," he told Al-Jazeera.

Tajoura has been known since the beginning of the uprising in February as the Tripoli neighbourhood most openly opposed to Al Qathafi's rule.

A rebel representative for Tripoli on the NTC told the AP that rebels were surrounding almost every neighbourhood in the capital, and there was especially heavy fighting in Fashloum, Tajoura and Souq al-Jomaa.

In Benghazi, thousands of Libyans celebrated in the main city square, shooting fireworks and guns into the air, and waving rebel flags.

Libya rejects rebel claims Al Qathafi seeking refuge for his family

(CNN) - Libyan officials are rejecting rebel claims that Muammar Al Qathafi is seeking refuge for his family, saying that neither the leader nor his wife and children plan to leave the country.

Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim told CNN that Al Qathafi and his family are staying in the country, countering rebel reports that the governments of Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria have been asked to accept the family.

U.S. and NATO officials also say they have no indication Al Qathafi is making preparations to leave.

Abdul Monem al-Houni, a representative of the rebel Transitional National Council in Cairo, told CNN he was informed about the request by the Arab governments who received it.

Kaim said the four governments could speak on their own behalf about the rebel claims.

The reports come as U.S. officials say the embattled leader might be preparing for a last stand in Tripoli as a months-long NATO air campaign continues amid reports of rebel advances.

"We believe he could be planning for a last stand," one U.S. official said.

A second U.S. official confirmed a similar concern and said the Al Qathafi plan could involve a final military offensive against civilians, launched from his last major strongholds around the Libyan capital.

The officials, who have knowledge of the situation on the ground, did not want to be named because of the sensitive intelligence matters.

NATO conducted 26 strike sorties on Libya Friday, the alliance said Saturday. It made 14 "key hits" in the Tripoli area, including on military facilities and a tank, as well as hits in the areas of Zawiyah and Zlitan.

In an address broadcast on Libyan state television Monday, Al Qathafi urged supporters to take up arms and battle rebel forces.

"Move always forward to the challenge; pick up your weapons; go to the fight in order to liberate Libya inch by inch from the traitors and from NATO. Be prepared to fight if they hit the ground," Al Qathafi said.

Both U.S. officials emphasised that if a final push by Al Qathafi happens, the United States doesn't have a clear idea what form it could take.

However, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Friday that U.S. officials in Benghazi have been working with the Libyan opposition "on exactly what it's going to look like post-Al Qathafi."

"Impossible to say when he'll go, but it's clear that he will go," Toner told CNN.

Also on Friday, opposition forces said a former Libyan prime minister has left Tripoli and joined with rebels in the country's western mountains.

Abdul Salam Jalloud "is in Zintan and he is a free man among the rebels," said Jumma Ibrahim, a spokesman for the Military Council of the Western Mountain Region, a rebel group.

Kaim declined to confirm or deny the report.

Jalloud was among members of Al Qathafi's inner-circle responsible for the 1969 coup that put Al Qathafi into power. Jalloud fell out of favour with the regime in the mid-1990s.

The speculation over a Al Qathafi "last stand" comes as his troops are battling rebel forces on a number of fronts, including in the west, where fighting has raged for days over the strategic city of Zawiyah, about 30 miles west of Tripoli and a major supply route to the capital.

On Saturday, it appeared the rebels had taken control of all of Zawiyah after pushing Al Qathafi's forces beyond the east gate, according to CNN's Sara Sidner who is in the city. Artillery fire could be heard, and mortars were launched toward Zawiyah on Saturday, she reported.

Rebel fighters told Sidner that NATO had warned civilians to leave the main part of the city. NATO has not yet commented on that statement.

Earlier, the rebels seized a major oil refinery in Zawiyah and controlled only the western part of the city, said Hobab Jomaa, a rebel fighter.

When asked when rebels might begin their move toward Tripoli, one fighter in Zawiyah told CNN's Sara Sidner, "Two days, maybe by the end of the week."

Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim downplayed the movements Friday, saying rebel supply lines have been cut off from the coast and from the south, rendering them unable to advance.

"We have paid a heavy price, and we have nothing in front of us except the prize, and the prize is victory over those traitors who collaborated with the crusader enemy and transformed Libya into a bloodbath," Ibrahim said.

Meanwhile, a NATO air strike destroyed the home of Abdullah al-Sanussi, the head of Libya's intelligence service and a brother-in-law of Al Qathafi's, neighbours and Libyan government officials said Friday.

The strike also destroyed a school and medical store, neighbours and officials said. One person - not al-Sanussi - was killed, they said.

In June, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for al-Sanussi along with Al Qathafi and his son Seif al-Islam for actions taken as a popular uprising morphed into civil war.

The warrants are for "crimes against humanity," including murder and persecution committed in Libya in February "through the state apparatus and security forces."

Libyan rebels edge closer to Tripoli

(Aljazeera.net) - Libyan opposition fighters have expelled government forces from the strategic western city of Az Zawiyah, a major victory in their march on Muammar Al Qathafi's stronghold of Tripoli.

Al Qathafi's forces continued to fire rockets and mortar rounds at Az Zawiyah from positions in the east on Saturday and the city's central hospital was hit several hours after it was taken by rebels.

Momentum appears to have now firmly swung in the opposition's favour after months of near-deadlock, with the rebels holding much of the east and the Libyan regime controlling the west.

"Al Qathafi's days are numbered,' said Jeffrey Feltman, US Assistant Secretary of State, during a visit to the de-facto rebel capital of Benghazi. "The best case scenario is for Al Qathafi to step down now ... that's the best protection for civilians.'

Mustafa Abdul Jalil, an opposition leader, echoed the statement.

"The end is very near" for Al Qathafi, said the chairman of the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) on Saturday.

"We have contacts with people from the inner circle of Al Qathafi," he said. "All evidence [shows] that the end is very near, with God's grace."

The territory remaining under Al Qathafi's control has been shrinking dramatically in the past three weeks, with opposition fighters advancing on the capital, from the west, south and east. Major supply routes into the capital have also fallen under rebel control.

Challenges ahead

In an indication of challenges ahead, however, rebel spokesman Ahmed Bani said his troops retreated from parts of the eastern town of Brega, losing the industrial section to Al Qathafi's forces.

The oil port has frequently changed hands throughout the conflict. At a news conference, Bani said rebels captured the city of Zlitan, 140km southeast of Tripoli, after more than two months of fighting.

Al Jazeera's Jacky Rowland reports from Benghazi on the cracks and defections from within Al Qathafi's regime

"Zlitan is now completely liberated after a severe fight, and for the first time I can say we have control over it,' Bani told reporters on Saturday.

As rebels battled for towns on either side of Tripoli on Saturday, fighting spilled across the border into Tunisia, where Libyan infiltrators clashed with Tunisian troops.

Tunisian security sources said their forces intercepted Libyan men in vehicles with weapons and fought them through the night in the desert. They reported several casualties.

Al Qathafi's forces west of Az Zawiyah and near the Tunisian border have been effectively encircled and cut off from their supply lines. Tunisia has increased its army presence in the border area.

Residents of the southern Tunisian desert town of Douz told the Reuters news agency that helicopters were seen overhead and troops had been summoned from nearby towns to subdue the infiltrators, who rode in vehicles without number plates.

The Tunisian security sources did not say whether the armed men were rebels or supporters of Al Qathafi. Residents said they believed they were Al Qathafi supporters.

Tunisian officials also said a Tunisian army helicopter had crashed because of mechanical problems in the border area, killing the pilot and co-pilot.

'Al Qathafi is finished'

The siege of Tripoli and the prospect of a battle for the capital have added urgency to the question of Al Qathafi's fate. The leader has repeatedly vowed never to leave the country. Rebels say they will not stop fighting until he is gone.

Representatives of the two sides held talks early this week in a Tunisian resort, attended by a former French prime minister, but announced no breakthrough.

The severing of the road link between Tripoli and Tunisia makes further talks difficult.

A Tunisian official source said Libya's senior oil official, Omran Abukraa, had arrived in Tunisia after deciding not to return to Tripoli from a trip to Italy.

If confirmed, it would be the third apparent defection of a senior Al Qathafi associate this week. A senior security official arrived in Rome on Monday, and rebels said on Friday that Al Qathafi's estranged former deputy Abdel Salam Jalloud had joined their side.

In Az Zawiyah's central square on Saturday, residents were burning and stamping on a green Al Qathafi flag.

"Al Qathafi is finished. Civilians are starting to come back to the cities. Libya is finally free," said one, who gave his name as Abu Khaled.

In a nearby alley, residents had gathered to stare at the bodies of two Al Qathafi soldiers lying in the street. Gunfire and explosions could be heard in the distance.

Rebels said the main Al Qathafi force had retreated about 10km east to the town of Jaddayim and was shelling Az Zawiyah from there.

East of the capital, where fighting has been bloodier and rebel advances far slower, opposition forces fought street battles in the city of Zlitan and suffered heavy casualties, a Reuters reporter said on Friday.

A rebel spokesman said 32 rebel fighters were killed and 150 wounded.

Al Qathafi's spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said late on Friday the government's military held the upper hand in both Az Zawiyah and Zlitan.

The sudden imposition of a siege around Tripoli has trapped its residents and cut them off from fuel and food.

The International Organisation for Migration said on Friday it would organise a rescue operation to evacuate thousands of foreign workers, probably by sea.

In Libya, the tide is turning against Muammar Al Qathafi

(L.A. Times) - Libyan rebels have made dramatic gains in recent days that suggest Muammar Al Qathafi is losing his grip on power, though the fight for Tripoli, the capital, is expected to be protracted.

The dramatic gains by rebels in recent days suggest for the first time in the 6-month-old uprising that Libyan leader Muammar Al Qathafi is losing his grip on power as emboldened opposition forces push closer to the capital, Tripoli.

The Libyan battle map is strung with Al Qathafi defeats. The rebel advance in Zawiyah, about 30 miles west of Tripoli, has cut supply routes to his army. Opposition fighters have further squeezed Tripoli by taking Gharyan to the south. And to the east, insurgents seized the strategic coastal town of Zlitan.

"It is clear that the situation is moving against Al Qathafi," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman told reporters Saturday after a meeting in the rebels' de facto capital, Benghazi. "The opposition continues to make substantial gains on the ground while his forces grow weaker."

But is unlikely that the poorly armed rebels, who are prone to strategic mistakes, can win the capital without a protracted and bloody siege.

Although they have been helped by defections of top Libyan officials and by NATO air strikes that have battered Al Qathafi's army, the man who has ruled Libya for four decades appears to be defiantly concentrating his firepower in Tripoli.

"The end is very near," rebel leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil told reporters Saturday. He said of Al Qathafi: "I expect a catastrophic end for him and his inner circle."

Rebels claimed they had gained control of the oil city of Port Brega, about 415 miles southeast of Tripoli. The city in recent months had swung back and forth between Al Qathafi and rebel control and has been the scene of heavy fighting.

Hostilities also spread beyond Libya's borders as armed men in pickup trucks believed to be Al Qathafi supporters briefly clashed with border guards in Tunisia early Saturday.

Rebels also suggested that the Libyan leader was losing pockets of the capital, which has seen an exodus of frightened residents.

"The situation in Tripoli is like a man in his late stages of cancer and waiting," said Col. Ahmed Omar Bani, spokesman for the rebel army. "Al Qathafi's troops are not in command of the city anymore.

“Residents broke the wall of fear and started carrying out operations and fighting against the troops … using Molotov cocktails and homemade bombs and other weapons that were sneaked to Tripoli."

Such assertions could not be independently confirmed but the eccentric and verbose Al Qathafi has kept an uncharacteristically low profile as NATO air strikes have rumbled in and around the capital. His government released an audio recording last week of Al Qathafi telling his countrymen that "the blood of martyrs is fuel for the battlefield."

He added: "The end of the colonizer is close and the end of the rats is close. They [the rebels] flee from one house to another before the masses who are chasing them."

But events on the ground have shifted against him as rebels hoist flags and show off captured tanks. The Libyan leader was surrounded by insurgents on the south, east and west and cut off from the Mediterranean Sea by a NATO naval blockade.

There have been conflicting reports in recent days about secret negotiations between the rebels and the Al Qathafi regime. Sensing that the momentum now belongs to them, however, the rebels have scoffed at such talks.

Al Qathafi's inner circle is also shrinking. Abdul Salam Jalloud, once a close confidant, fled the country and is reportedly in Tunisia. His departure follows the defection of Oil Minister Omran Abukraa and former Interior Minister Nassr Mabrouk Abdullah, who landed with his family earlier this month in Cairo.

The fighting has intensified as rebels pound closer to the capital. Street battles, artillery barrages and the crack of sniper rifles echoed through Zawiyah and the oil refinery on its outskirts.

In Zlitan, where 32 rebels were killed and 150 wounded, Al Jazeera reported: "The rebel fighters took heavy losses, they came under fire from artillery and rockets but they moved forward .... The Al Qathafi troops pulled out, leaving ammunition and a lot of equipment behind."

Feltman told a news conference in Benghazi: "It is time for Al Qathafi to go, and we firmly believe that his days are numbered."

Battle outside Tripoli, fighting spills to Tunisia

(Daily Star, Beirut) - Libyan rebels battled for towns on either side of the besieged capital Tripoli Saturday, and fighting spilt across the border into Tunisia where Libyan infiltrators clashed with Tunisian troops.

This week’s rebel advances on Tripoli - Muammar Al Qathafi’s last major stronghold - have transformed the war by cutting the capital off from its main road link to the outside world and putting unprecedented pressure on Al Qathafi’s 41-year rule.

Washington says the veteran leader’s days are now numbered, and reports have emerged of more defections from Al Qathafi’s ranks.

The six-month-old war came close to the Tunisian frontier after rebels suddenly seized the coastal city of Zawiyah just 30 miles west of Tripoli, surrounding the heavily fortified capital and severing its vital supply routes.

In Tunisia, security sources said their forces had intercepted Libyan men in vehicles with weapons and fought them through the night in the desert. They reported several casualties, but did not say whether the fighters were Libyan rebels or pro-Al Qathafi soldiers cut off from Tripoli.

Residents of the southern Tunisian desert town of Douz told Reuters by telephone that helicopters were swooping overhead and troops had been summoned from nearby towns to subdue the infiltrators, who rode in vehicles without number plates.

The imposition of a siege around Tripoli has trapped its residents and cut it off from fuel and food supplies. The International Organization for Migration said Friday it would organize a rescue operation to evacuate thousands of foreign workers, probably by sea.

Intense fighting continued in Zawiyah, home to an important oil refinery, Saturday and rebels occupying the centre of the city said pro-Al Qathafi forces showed no sign of retreat.
“Al Qathafi will try to take back Zawiyah at any price. He will keep shelling the hospital,” said a rebel fighter as he prepared for midday prayers in the mosque of Bir Hawisa, a nearby village where many civilians are sheltering.

“We will not let that happen. We will fight.”

East of Tripoli, fighting has been bloodier and rebel advances far slower. Friday, opposition forces fought street battles in the city of Zlitan but suffered heavy casualties, a Reuters reporter said. A rebel spokesman said 32 rebel fighters were killed and 150 wounded.

NATO warplanes have hammered Al Qathafi military targets since March under a U.N. mandate to protect civilians. Al Qathafi’s government has said the bombs have killed scores of innocent people, including 27 during a raid on Tripoli this week.

Saturday, Libyan Prime Minister Al Baghdadi Ali Al-Mahmoudi spoke to U.N. General Secretary Ban Ki-moon by telephone requesting an investigation into alleged abuses by NATO, Libyan state news agency JANA reported.

JANA said Ban had promised to study the proposal.

In another potential blow to Al Qathafi, a Tunisian source said Libya’s top oil official, Omran Abukraa, had arrived in Tunisia after deciding not to return to Tripoli from a trip to Italy.

If confirmed, it would be the third apparent defection of a senior Al Qathafi associate this week. A senior security official arrived in Rome Monday, and rebels said Friday that Al Qathafi’s estranged former deputy Abdul Salam Jalloud had joined their side in the western mountains.

The siege of Tripoli and the prospect of a battle for the capital have added urgency to the question of Al Qathafi’s fate. The leader has repeatedly vowed never to leave the country and rebels say they will not stop fighting until he is gone.

A senior U.S. official said Saturday that the opposition must prepare to take over power soon. The United States is among more than 30 nations that have recognised the rebels’ National Transitional Council (NTC) as Libya’s legitimate authority.

“It is clear that the situation is moving against Al Qathafi,” U.S. assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman told a news conference after meeting Libyan rebel leaders at their headquarters in Libya’s eastern city of Benghazi.

“The opposition continues to make substantial gains on the ground while his forces grow weaker.”

Rebels say Tripoli almost surrounded

(UPI) - Libyan rebels had the capital almost surrounded Saturday, holding coastal cities on the east and west, their spokesmen said.

The rebels also have bases in the Nafusa Mountains south of Tripoli.

But the government of Libyan leader Muammar Al Qathafi denied rebels had taken control of Zawiyah and Zliten and severed supply routes, the BBC reported.

Ali Gliwan, a spokesman for the rebel council in Misurata to the east of Tripoli, told The Guardian that Zliten, 100 miles from the capital, was now in the hands of "thwar" - or revolutionary forces - and fighters were now outside al-Khums. Al-Khums, 70 miles from Tripoli, is the last major road junction.

"Misurata thwar linked with the Zliten thwar," Gliwan told the Guardian. "They are now establishing control of the town."

The rebels said they seized Zawiyah, a major port 30 miles west of Tripoli and site of a major oil refinery, on Friday.

There were many casualties on both sides. Dr. Jamal Mustafa at Mujamma Aledad Hospital in Misurata said he had heard Al Qathafi's fighters were ambushing the rebels.

"The bloody bastards, they hid in the houses, they know we will not shoot at the houses for fear of killing civilians," he said.

Al Qathafi, who has ruled Libya since 1969, spoke on national radio Friday night denying rebel advances and urged citizens to join the army in quelling the rebellion.
"The blood of the martyrs is fuel for the battlefield," he said.

Meanwhile, the prospect of Tripoli coming under siege had the International Organization for Migration scrambling for means for a mass evacuation of foreign migrants, the reports said.

Since the rebellion began in February, the IOM estimates about 600,000 migrant workers have fled, but tens of thousands remain.

IOM spokeswoman Jemini Pandya told The Daily Telegraph logistics didn't favour land routes for an evacuation.

Al Qathafi scorns rebel ‘rats’ as fighting breaks out in besieged Tripoli

(Al Arabiya) - Beleaguered Colonel Muammar Al Qathafi appealed to the Libyan people on Sunday to march “by the millions” and repel an assault on Tripoli by “rats,” as explosions and gunfire rocked the capital overnight, with rebels making a final push to end the Libyan leader’s 42-year rule.

“We have to put an end to this masquerade. You must march by the millions to free the destroyed towns" controlled by rebels he labeled as “traitors” and “rats.” “These scums enter mosques to cry ‘God is great.’ They are dirty. They are defiling the mosques,” Colonel Al Qathafi said in an audio message broadcast over state television early on Sunday

Earlier, a Tripoli resident said cries of “Allahu Akbar” could be heard from mosques in the city’s eastern sectors.

Colonel Al Qathafi accused French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country is helping lead NATO-coordinated air strikes on the strongman's military assets, of recruiting the rebels as “agents” to steal Libya’s vast oil wealth.

“To win the upcoming elections, he wants to be able to say to his people: ‘Here, I'm offering you Libyan oil’ and this is going to be achieved with the help of traitors.
“But the Libyan people will not allow France to take its oil or leave Libya to the hands of traitors,” he said.

Intense gunfire erupted after the break of the dawn-to-dusk fast of Ramadan on Saturday. Witnesses reported fighting in the eastern neighbourhoods of Soug Jomaa, Arada and Tajura, the government insisted it was in charge of the city.

Reuters journalists in the centre of the capital said the fighting subsided somewhat after several hours, but bursts of machine-gun fire and explosions could still be heard in the pre-dawn hours, indicating fighting in several neighbourhoods.

Zero hour for Al Qathafi

“The zero hour has started. The rebels in Tripoli have risen up,” Abdul Hafiz Ghoga, vice-chairman of the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC), based in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, told Reuters.

The clashes inside the capital triggered massive street celebrations in Benghazi as well as elsewhere in the country and in the capital of neighbouring Tunisia.

Colonel Al Qathafi’s information minister said the rebel incursion into the city had been quickly put down.

“The situation is under control,” Information Minister Moussa Ibrahim said, adding that pro-regime volunteers had repelled insurgent attacks in several neighbourhoods.

Ibrahim dismissed mounting speculation that the regime was on the brink as a “media attack,” but more gunfire was heard after he spoke on television.

Rebel advances on Tripoli have transformed the war since they seized the city of Zawiyah on Tripoli’s Western outskirts a week ago, cutting the capital off from its main road link to the outside world and putting unprecedented pressure on Colonel Al Qathafi.



Before dawn, state television showed Colonel Al Qathafi’s son Seif al-Islam addressing what it called a youth conference. A roomful of supporters broke into occasional chants and applause as he declared that the rebels would be defeated.

“The revolt in Libya will not succeed. You will never see us as Libyans surrender and raise the white flag: that is impossible. This is our country and we will never leave it.”

Fighting was still raging after midnight around Maitiga airbase in Tripoli’s Tajourah district, an area said to be under rebel control, an opposition activist told a Reuters journalist outside Libya.

The gun battles left a number of rebels dead in the suburb of Qadah and elsewhere, along with at least three pro-Al Qathafi soldiers in the Zawiyat al-Dahmania district of Tripoli, he said.

A Tripoli resident told Reuters that Muslim clerics in parts of Tripoli had called on people to rise up, using the loudspeakers on minarets. The resident said the call went out around the time people were breaking their Ramadan fast.

“We can hear shooting in different places,” one resident said. “Most of the regions of the city have gone out, mostly young people ... it’s the uprising... They went out after breaking the (Ramadan) fast.”

“They are shouting religious slogans: ‘God is greatest!’”

The latest rebel advance on Tripoli came a day after they seized the town of Zliten, which is 150 kilometres (93 miles) east of the capital.

Rebels have been seeking to sever Tripoli’s supply lines from Tunisia to the west and to Colonel Al Qathafi’s home town of Sirte in the east, hoping to cut off the capital, prompt defections and spark an uprising inside Tripoli.

The International Organization for Migration said it was drawing up plans to evacuate thousands of migrants stranded in Tripoli because exit points have been cut off after a spate of rebel successes.

Rebels advance on Libyan capital

(Irish Times) - Rebels battled for towns on either side of the Libyan capital Tripoli today, and fighting spilled across the border into Tunisia where Libyan infiltrators clashed with Tunisian troops.

The United States said Muammar Al Qathafi's "days are numbered" as insurgents, backed by NATO air strikes, put his four-decade rule in the North African nation under unprecedented pressure amid reports of more defections from his ranks.

Tunisian security sources said their forces had intercepted Libyan men in vehicles with weapons and fought them through the night in the desert. They reported several casualties.

A Tunisian official source also said Libya's top oil official, Omran Abukraa, had arrived in Tunisia after deciding not to return to Tripoli from a trip to Italy.

If confirmed, it would be the third apparent defection of a senior Al Qathafi associate this week. A senior security official arrived in Rome on Monday, and rebels said yesterday that Al Qathafi's estranged former deputy Abdul Salam Jalloud had joined their side in the western mountains.

The six-month-old war in Libya came close to the frontier this week after rebels suddenly seized the coastal city of Zawiyah just 50km west of Tripoli, surrounding the capital and severing its supply routes.

Intense fighting continued in Zawiyah today and rebels occupying the centre of the city said pro-Al Qathafi forces showed no sign of retreating to the capital.

Al Qathafi soldiers west of Zawiyah and near the Tunisian border have been effectively encircled and cut off from their supply lines, and Tunisia has beefed up its military presence in the border area.

Residents of the southern Tunisian desert town of Douz said helicopters were swooping overhead and troops had been summoned from nearby towns to subdue the infiltrators, who rode in vehicles without number plates.

The Tunisian security sources did not say whether the armed men were rebels or supporters of Col Al Qathafi, but residents said they believed they were Col Al Qathafi supporters.

Tunisian officials also said a Tunisian army helicopter had crashed because of mechanical problems in the border area, killing the pilot and co-pilot.

The siege of Tripoli and the prospect of a battle for the capital have added urgency to the question of Col Al Qathafi's fate. The leader has repeatedly vowed never to leave the country. Rebels say they will not stop fighting until he is gone.

Representatives of the two sides held talks early this week in a Tunisian resort, attended by a former French prime minister, but announced no breakthrough.

A senior US official said today that Col Al Qathafi's days are numbered and that the opposition must prepare for power.

"It is clear that the situation is moving against Al Qathafi," US assistant secretary of state Jeffrey Feltman told a news conference after meeting Libyan rebel leaders at their headquarters in Libya's eastern city of Benghazi.

"The opposition continues to make substantial gains on the ground while his forces grow weaker," Mr Feltman said.

The United States is among the more than 30 nations that have recognised the rebels' National Transitional Council (NTC) as Libya's legitimate authority.

Mortar and rocket rounds crashed into the centre of Zawiyah today. Shells struck the central hospital around dawn, blasting holes in the walls.

"Al Qathafi will try to take back Zawiyah at any price. He will keep shelling the hospital," said a rebel fighter as he was preparing for midday prayers in the mosque of Bir Hawisa, a nearby village where many civilians are sheltering.

"We will not let that happen. We will fight," he said.

Rebels said the main Al Qathafi force had withdrawn to a village 10km to the east. Today the area around Zawiyah's main hospital showed the signs of battle, with buildings punctured by artillery blasts and licked by flames.

In the central square, residents were burning and stamping on a green Al Qathafi flag.
"Al Qathafi is finished. Civilians are starting to come back to the cities. Libya is finally free," said one, who gave his name as Abu Khaled.

In a nearby alley, residents had gathered to stare at the bodies of two Al Qathafi soldiers lying in the street. Gunfire and explosions could be heard in the distance.

East of the capital, where fighting has been bloodier and rebel advances far slower, opposition forces fought street battles in the city of Zlitan but suffered heavy casualties, a Reuters reporter said yesterday. A rebel spokesman said 32 rebel fighters were killed and 150 wounded.

Col Al Qathafi's spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said late yesterday the government's military held the upper hand in both cities.

The sudden imposition of a siege around Tripoli has trapped its residents behind the front line and cut it off from fuel and food. The International Organisation for Migration said yesterday it would organise a rescue operation to evacuate thousands of foreign workers, probably by sea.

Morgan Strong
- Contributing Editor, New York
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