As rebels continue to fight loyalist forces along several fronts, blackouts have rolled across Tripoli with increasing frequency in recent weeks.

Many residents have no air conditioning during peak summer heat and no refrigeration as they prepare for evening meals during Ramadan.

Some areas of the Libyan capital are getting as little as four hours of power a day, residents said this week.

One area on the eastern outskirts of Tripoli, Tajoura, went without power for 28 hours this week. Foreign embassies have been hit by power outages that last for most of the day.

Mohamed Abu Ajeela Rashid, a former Libyan health minister who is now a senior hospital official, said the power shortages were causing serious problems.

On Saturday, he said, power was cut while he was in surgery and he completed the operation by the light of his cell phone.

The power crunch this week hit the hotel where foreign journalists are lodged, a bubble of luxury and one of the few places in Tripoli where Internet service is available.

The sudden deterioration in electricity supplies is piling pressure on Libyans already grappling with the impact of the Qaddafi government’s increasing isolation and almost six months of civil conflict that has torn this North African country in two and brought punishing NATO airstrikes.

In coastal areas around Tripoli, cars line up for kilometers at the few petrol stations that remain open. Many Libyans have sold their cars or parked them indefinitely for lack of fuel.

During a month in which families and friends typically gather for evening meals, ordinary cooking fuel has become scarce and wildly expensive.

A gas container that cost less than the equivalent of $2-3 a few months ago can cost at least 20 times that amount, if it can be found.

“No one is buying anything,” shopkeeper Adel said bleakly in his darkened, deserted shoe store in the Ghut Al-Shaal neighborhood of western Tripoli, where power was out on Saturday afternoon. “This is the worst Ramadan of my life.”

OPEC member Libya, which has Africa’s largest crude oil reserves, uses its gas and diesel supplies to power electricity turbines, but it has relied on imports of gasoline to keep vehicles running.

Since the conflict broke out this winter, sanctions have hindered trade while rebels have sought to cripple Qaddafi’s military and political power by shutting off oil supplies to the Zawiyah refinery near Tripoli.

Adding to the problem, the government says, is the smuggling of Libyan diesel, which should be going to fuel power stations, into neighboring Tunisia, where it is traded for petrol that can be sold for vehicle use in Libya.

Almost no one is exempt from the current fuel crunch. The government bus carrying foreign journalists on a recent trip, for example, tried unsuccessfully to find petrol at several stations southeast of Tripoli before being forced to siphon fuel from an emergency jug stashed under the seats.

The Qaddafi government blames NATO airstrikes and the rebels backed by the alliance in a bid to end Qaddafi’s 41-year-rule.

Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim said recently that power shortages were caused by NATO strikes on power turbines and rebel attacks on pipelines.

“These attacks are aimed at starving and displacing the Libyan people and causing a humanitarian crisis. What do power lines have to do with military battles or protecting civilians?” Kaim said.

“It is unethical what NATO is doing for all the world to see. But Libyans, thank God, know who really is behind this.”

The message has sunk in with at least some segments of the Tripoli public. Vegetable merchant Abdul Salim Tarhouni said his home goes without power for many hours at a time, and he blames the airstrikes.

“We have no fuel, no cars, and it’s all NATO’s fault,” he said. “It’s okay, though — even if we have to go without water, we will stand by our leader.”

Yet even in tightly controlled Tripoli, where foreign journalists are trailed at all times by government minders and prohibited from reporting freely, there are signs the mounting scarcities are fueling resentment against the Qaddafi government.

In recent days, witnesses say, there have been isolated, sporadic gatherings of people angry about the deterioration in living conditions.

Following an initial protest period, the relative quiescence of Tripoli has been a key factor helping Qaddafi to defy the Western-led military alliance seeking to unseat him.

This is in sharp contrast to western Benghazi where rebels established a rival government now recognized by a growing number of Western nations. 

Power and fuel shortages may be worse outside of the capital. In Libya’s scarcely populated southern region, some residents say they have only a few hours of power a day and they are unable to operate water pumps to supply their homes.

In the coastal town of Zlitan this week, a man working in an empty shop only shrugged when asked about business, pointing to the extinguished light fixture above him.

“You can see for yourself,” he said.