Attackers set off a bomb next to a wall of the US Consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi today, the US State Department said.

The Libyan rebels’ military commander was killed by his comrades while in custody after he was arrested by the opposition’s leadership on suspicion of treason, a witness said today.

The head of the Libyan rebel armed forces was shot and killed just before arriving for questioning by rebel authorities, their political leader said in a carefully worded statement to reporters that gave few details on who was behind the killing.

LIBYAN rebel forces yesterday entered the oil town of Brega and fought street battles there with forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, a rebel spokesman said, in the biggest offensive in eastern Libya in weeks.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is facing dramatic shortages of fuel for his soldiers and citizens in Tripoli, and he is running out of cash to pay his forces and what is left of his government, according to the latest US intelligence reports.

A defiant Muammar Gaddafi today threatened to carry out attacks in Europe against “homes, offices, families” unless Nato halts its campaign of airstrikes against his regime in Libya.

Nato air strikes have hit Muammar Gaddafi’s sprawling compound in Tripoli and three other sites, hours after the Libyan leader was shown on state TV in his first appearance since his son was killed nearly two weeks ago.

At least four Nato air strikes targeted the Libyan capital Tripoli early today.

MOURNERS called for revenge as some 2,000 people in the Libyan capital greeted a funeral procession carrying Muammar Gaddafi’s son, who was killed in a NATO airstrike.

Nato powers rejected Muammar Gaddafi’s call for a ceasefire and negotiations today, saying they need “actions not words,” and aid ships were prevented from docking in a besieged coastal city while the alliance swept the port for mines.

Libyan rebels fighting Muammar Gaddafi will not be able to produce more crude oil for at least another four weeks and are taking steps to conserve precious supplies of fuel and money, the top oil official in the breakaway east said.

Libyan tribal leaders are trying to get rebels in the city of Misrata to lay down their arms within 48 hours, a government official said early today, after a day of fierce clashes between opposition fighters and Muammar Gaddafi’s forces.

The conflict in Libya is heading towards a “stalemate” despite more than a month of allied air strikes against Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s forces, the most senior American military officer admitted today.

THE UN has sent food for 50,000 people to west Libya as aid groups scrambled to reach trapped civilians and rebels put the death toll from two months of fighting at 10,000.

REBELS came under fire on the outskirts of Ajdabiya, hemming them in to their eastern outpost and denting their hopes of pushing west to try to end a stalemate in the Libyan war.

Nato has admitted its planes struck rebels using tanks in their fight with the government forces in eastern Libya.

LIBYAN rebels claimed two of their fighters were killed and more than 12 injured after NATO airstrikes mistakenly bombed their forces yesterday as anger over the co-ordination effort escalated.

Three days of attacks by forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi have halted production in rebel-held oil fields, a rebel spokesman said today.

A LIBYAN woman who says she is the person who burst into a Tripoli hotel to tell foreign journalists that she had been gang raped by Muammar Gaddafi’s troops told a CNN interviewer she is out of custody but is receiving death threats from regime loyalists.

The Libyan government says Muammar Gaddafi will not step down but the regime is ready to discuss changes in how the country is governed.

A Nato air strike intended to thwart Muammar Gaddafi’s forces killed 13 rebel fighters in eastern Libya, the opposition said.

A Nato air strike intended to thwart Muammar Gaddafi’s forces killed 13 rebel fighters in eastern Libya instead, the opposition said today.

Libya’s government has threatened to base decisions on future oil deals on how nations react to the uprising seeking to oust Muammar Gaddafi.

FRANCE and Britain stepped up calls for other world powers to isolate Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi with a no-fly zone, amid diplomatic differences over how much backing to give Libyan rebels.

The United Nations is drafting a resolution to impose a no-fly zone over Libya as the international community edges closer to military intervention in the North African country.

Rebel forces routed troops loyal to Muammar Gaddafi in a fierce battle over an oil port, scrambling over the dunes of a Mediterranean beach through shelling and an air strike to corner their attackers.

Cracks in Muammar Gaddafi’s once-total rule spread rapidly across Libya today.

MORE than 100 people have died in an iron-fisted security crackdown in unrest-swept eastern Libya, Human Rights Watch said, fearing a “catastrophe” as protests spread closer to the capital.