Rebels take control of strategic city on outskirts of Tripoli

LIBYAN rebels launched an assault to drive forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi out of a strategic city on Tripoli’s outskirts, and said that encircled Gaddafi troops had abandoned two towns further west.

After 41 years of supreme power, the 69-year-old Gaddafi is looking isolated, with reinvigorated rebel forces closing in on the capital from the west and south and cutting off its road links to the outside.

The rebels, aided by a NATO bombing campaign, have transformed the battle in the last few days by seizing most of the city of Zawiyah on Tripoli’s western outskirts, as well as a town to the south, cutting Tripoli’s two main supply routes.

A rebel spokesman said remnants of Gaddafi’s forces further west — now cut off from the capital and effectively encircled following the capture of Zawiyah — had abandoned two towns and were retreating toward the Tunisian border.

“Gaddafi’s forces this morning withdrew from the towns of Tiji and Badr because they felt surrounded from all sides,” said the spokesman, named Abdulrahman, by telephone from Zintan, a rebel headquarters in the Western Mountains.

“The revolutionaries have now entered Tiji and Badr. The [Gaddafi] brigades retreated to Zuwarah and Jameel, near the Tunisian border. I think they will surrender soon because roads to Tripoli are closed,” he added.

The account could not be independently confirmed. Gaddafi’s government has played down the rebel advances of the past week.

In Zawiyah, which controls the main highway linking Tripoli to the Tunisian border, Gaddafi forces have retained control of an oil refinery.

“There are some snipers inside the refinery facility. We control the gates of the refinery. We will be launching an operation to try to take control of it shortly,” said rebel fighter Abdulkarim Kashaba.