Libya rebels 'capture three towns'
Hundreds of rebels have launched a broad offensive against government forces in western Libya and seized three small towns, spokesmen say.
Four rebel fighters were killed and several wounded in what the spokesmen described as the biggest push in the area since the start of Libya’s civil war five months ago.
They said rebels captured 18 government soldiers, as well as weapons and ammunition.
Libya’s civil war has been largely deadlocked and rebels have been unable to score a major breakthrough on the battle field.
Rebels control Libya’s eastern third and most of the Nafusa mountains in the west, as well as the western port city of Misrata. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, entrenched in the capital of Tripoli, is clinging to the rest of the territory.
In today’s fighting, hundreds of rebels descended from their stronghold in the Nafusa mountains at dawn and advanced along a stretch of more than 100 kms.
Opposition forces drove government troops out of the small towns of Jawsh, Ghezaya and Takut, the rebels said.
Rebels were also advancing toward the town of Badr and two other areas.
Jawsh is about 150 kms east of the Tunisian border and along a main road between Tunisia and Tripoli.
Ghezaya is closer to the Tunisian border, and had served as a base for shelling attacks by Gaddafi’s forces on the rebel-held border town of Nalut.
One of the objectives of the push is to drive back pro-Gaddafi forces from the rebels’ main supply route between the Tunisian border and the Nafusa mountains.
In a separate development, the rebels said they had detained their own top military commander for questioning on suspicion his family might still have ties to the regime.
Rebel military spokesman Mohammed al-Rijali said the commander, Abdel Fattah Younes, was taken from his operations room near the front to the main rebel stronghold, the eastern city of Benghazi, for interrogation.
Younes, who served as Gaddafi’s interior minister but defected at the beginning of the fighting, was being questioned about suspected secret ties of his family to the Libyan regime, said two rebel security officials.
The offensive came a day after Britain recognised Libya’s main opposition group, the National Transitional Council, as Libya’s sole representative.
However, the rebels appear to be increasingly divided over what would be an acceptable way of ending the civil war.
France, Britain and the US have indicated they would accept an arrangement in which Gaddafi retires, but is allowed to stay in Libya, and the rebel chief, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, has also suggested he would consider the idea.
But the UK organiser for the rebel council, Guma El-Gamaty, said that the plan is unworkable.
With the possibility of a political deal seemingly off the table, fighting was bound to continue.
Abdul-Jalil said that the rebels would not lay down their weapons during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins next week.
Gaddafi has also signalled defiance in audio messages in recent days. In a message released on state TV he demanded that the western mountain rebels give up their weapons.
“Surrender, you traitors! The people of Libya are pushing forward (to the western mountains) – choose to surrender or die,” Gaddafi shouted.
