Libyan rebels battle into key city

Libyan rebels fought their way into the strategic city of Zawiya west of Tripoli today in their most significant advance in months, battling snipers on rooftops and heavy shelling from Muammar Gaddafi’s forces.

Zawiya is a key target for rebels waging a new offensive launched from the mountains in the far west of Libya, an attempt to break the deadlock in combat between the two sides that has held for months in the centre and east of the country.

A rebel force of about 200 fighters advancing from the south reached a bridge on Zawiya’s south-western outskirts, and some rebels pushed farther into the city’s central main square.

They tore down the green flag of Gaddafi’s regime from a mosque minaret and put up two rebel flags. An Associated Press reporter travelling with the rebels saw hundreds of residents rush into the streets, greeting the fighters with chants of “God is great.”

Gaddafi’s forces then counterattacked, unleashing rounds of heavy shelling and gunfire could be heard as rebels and government troops battled.

Regime snipers were firing down from rooftops on the rebels, said one resident, Abdel-Basset Abu Riyak, who joined to fight alongside the rebels when they entered the city.

He said Gaddafi’s forces were holed up in several pockets in the city and that there were reports of reinforcements coming from Tripoli, though there was no sign of them yet. He said Nato air strikes had hit Libyan military positions near the city the night before.

Zawiya’s residents rose up and threw off regime control when Libya’s anti-Gaddafi revolt first began in February. But Gaddafi’s forces retaliated and crushed opposition in the city in a long and bloody siege in March.

Speaking to the AP by telephone, Abu Riyak said residents were now joining up with the rebels’ assault, saying, “95 % of Zawiya’s people are with the revolution.”

“There is shooting from all sides,” said another rebel, 23-year-old Ibrahim Akram. “The people joined us. Fierce clashes are still ongoing, but thank God our numbers are great.”

But Gaddafi is likely to fight hard to keep control of Zawiya. The city of about 200,000 people, about 30 miles (50 kms) west of Tripoli on the Mediterranean coast is key because it controls the main supply road to the capital from the Tunisian border and is the site of the sole remaining oil refineries in the west still under the regime’s control.

In the morning today, rebels claimed control of the town of Gharyan 50 miles (80km) south of Tripoli in Libya’s western Nafusa Mountains.

But several hours later, regime forces returned with reinforcements and the two sides clashed, said rebel spokesman Gomma Ibrahim.