tla entertainment: Fierce fighting near to Tripoli

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Fierce fighting near to Tripoli

Rebels train on a captured army tank in the city of Zintan on 25 June 2011

The rebels told a BBC correspondent they were on their way to Tripoli

Rebels have been engaged in fierce firefights with government forces about 80km (50 miles) south-west of Tripoli and close to their frontline.

A BBC correspondent who was with the rebels said two of them had died in the battle, according to a volunteer medic.

The rebels said government forces suffered far greater casualties, although that cannot be confirmed.

Meanwhile, Col Muammar Gaddafi has agreed to stay out of talks on ending the conflict, African leaders said.

In a communique after talks on Sunday in South Africa, the African Union panel on Libya said it "welcomes Colonel Gaddafi's acceptance of not being part of the negotiations process". The statement did not elaborate.

The BBC's Mark Doyle, who is in the village of Bir Ayad, a strategic point on the road to the capital, Tripoli, said Sunday's fighting began when government forces tried to cut off the rebels by attacking from behind.

He said the fighting was continuing in the distance where he could hear the boom of artillery, the rattle of automatic gunfire and the occasional rumble of Nato jets overhead.

The rebels came down into the plains from the Nafusa mountains in early June, adds our correspondent, and say they are approaching the gates to Tripoli.

He says that although it is a shifting frontline, the rebels appear to be gradually consolidating their position in the western mountains.

The frontline is now thought to have moved just north of Bir Ayad to near the town of Bir al-Ghanam.

An AFP correspondent nearby heard heavy fire from rockets and machine-guns.

Guma el-Gamaty, a spokesman for the rebels' National Transitional Council, told AP news agency Bir al-Ghanam was important as it was barely 30km south of Zawiya, a western gateway to Tripoli.

Opposition fighters seized Zawiya in March before government troops drove the rebels out of the oil-refinery city. Fighting again broke out there this month.

This article is from the BBC News website. ? British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.