The rebels control roughly the eastern one-third of Libya as well as Misrata, the country’s major port. The also claim to have taken parts of coastal oil center of Zawiya in the far west. That port city is 30 kilometers)west of Tripoli and a prize that would put them in striking distance of the capital. Control of the city also would cut one of Muammar Qaddafi’s last supply routes from Tunisia.
Despite rebel claims, government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said late Sunday that Qaddafi forces had driven off the attackers, and reporters taken to Zawiya saw secure streets and the green national flag flying over a central square.
In the major fighting near Misrata on Monday, an Associated Press photographer at the rebel front lines said they had pushed along the Mediterranean Sea to within 10 kilometers of Zlitan, the next city to the west of Misrata. A rebel commander said his forces, using arms seized from government weapons depots and fresh armaments being shipped in from Benghazi, planned to have moved into Zlitan, by Tuesday.
Ali Terbelo, the rebel commander, said other opposition forces already were in Zlitan, trying to encircle Qaddafi troops. If the rebels take the city they would be within 135 kilometers of the eastern outskirts of Qaddafi’s capital, Tripoli.
An AP reporter with rebel forces said shelling was intense Monday morning with rockets and artillery and mortar shells slamming into rebel lines west of Dafniya at a rate of about 7 each minute. Dafniya is about 30 kilometers west of Misrata. Officials at Hikma Hospital in Misrata said government shelling killed seven and wounded 49 on Sunday. New casualty figures were not available but ambulances were rushing from the Dafniya line back into Misrata.
The rebel thrust at Zawiya and movements farther east — near Misrata and Brega — suggested the stalemated uprising had been reinvigorated, and that Qaddafi’s defenders may become stretched thin.
“Over the past three days, we set fire under the feet of Qaddafi forces everywhere,” Col. Hamid Al-Hasi, a rebel battalion commander, told AP. He said the rebels attacked “in very good coordination with NATO” to avoid friendly-fire incidents. “We don’t move unless we have very clear instructions from NATO.” Rebels encountered a major setback, however, near the eastern oil town of Brega on Monday. Suleiman Rafathi, a doctor at the hospital in the town of Ajdabiya where the casualties were taken, said 23 rebels were killed and 26 wounded in a government ambush about 35 kilometers east of Brega.
The front lines between Brega and Ajdabiya have been relatively quiet in recent weeks, while fighting has raged in western Libya.
Rebel fighters appear to be rebounding with help from the NATO blockade of ports still under government control and alliance control of Libyan airspace. Both have severely crimped the North African dictator’s ability to resupply his forces. And his control has been hard hit by defections from his military and government inner circle.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke again against the Libyan regime, telling the nations of Africa on Monday to sever links Qaddafi despite his long support and patronage for many African leaders.
In a speech on Monday to diplomats at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, Clinton said Africa should join most of the rest of the world in abandoning Qaddafi. She said the Libyan leader has lost all legitimacy to rule because of attacks on his own citizens.
She’s urged all African leaders to demand that Qaddafi accept a cease-fire and then leave Libya. She also said they should expel pro-Qaddafi Libyan diplomats from their countries, suspend the operations of Libyan embassies and work with the Libyan opposition.
