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Summary Recent rebel advances have isolated Libyan capital and trapped thousands of foreigners in Tripoli.
Libyan rebels claimed to have taken two more key objectives in their advance on Tripoli, including the refinery town of Zawiyah, as people scrambled to flee the increasingly isolated capital.Insurgents said they seized Zliten from forces loyal to strongman Moammar Gaddafi, only hours after reporting they were in the centre of the town, 150 kilometres east of Tripoli.“Zliten is now under the control of our fighters, but the fighting is not finished,” the information centre for the Misrata Military Council said.The offensive was launched around 07:30 a.m. and “at 1:00 p.m. our information indicates that rebel troops entered the city center,” it said.“Gaddafi forces have used tanks to try unsuccessfully to repel the rebels. There are dead and injured rebels,” the Information Centre added.“Between 40 and 50 Gaddafi forces were killed” in the fighting, while some 12 African mercenaries were captured, the statement said, adding that 40 insurgents were wounded, 10 of them seriously.Rebels also claimed to control Zawiyah and controlled its key refinery after seizing the hospital.“Zawiyah is free,” said rebels as they took up positions in the hospital hours after pounding the center of the town, which is the last major barrier before the rebels can consider advancing on Tripoli from the west.Hundreds of rebels armed with assault rifles had marched from the central square, a stronghold of forces loyal to Gaddafi, to the hospital, which was decorated with green flags and portraits of the veteran leader.Gaddafi snipers were staked out on rooftops as the battles raged, with buildings and streets in the town center showing signs of massive damage from the warfare.Rebels Thursday said they had seized the refinery but Libyan Prime Minister Baghdadi Mahmudi rejected the claim outright, saying it was “without doubt” still in loyalists’ hands.The refinery, the only one in western Libya, is vital to the Gaddafi regime, as it supplies fuel to Tripoli. Earlier in the day, fierce fighting was reported in Zawiyah, in an apparent counter-offensive by Gaddafi’s forces against rebels advancing toward Tripoli.Sustained blasts from rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and anti-aircraft guns were heard from the direction of Zawiyah’s central square as a black column of smoke rose into the evening sky, the reporters on the outskirts of the city said.Gaddafi’s prime minister said the government would overcome the rebel uprising in “a few days.”Recent rebel advances have isolated the Libyan capital and trapped thousands of foreigners in Tripoli, who will be evacuated in a massive international rescue, probably by sea, an international body said.A spokeswoman for the International Organization for Migration, Jemini Pandya, said that the operation to rescue thousands of Egyptians and other foreigners trapped in Tripoli by the latest fighting would commence within days.
