pre-Ramadan offensive on Wednesday, pushing Muammar Gaddafi’s troops into retreat, Brega, now 4km from Zliten centre.
Benghazi - Libya's rebels ramped up a pre-Ramadan offensive on Wednesday, pushing Muammar Gaddafi’s troops into retreat in the east and preparing a fresh attack from the south of Tripoli. Rebels said they had chased the bulk of Gaddafi’s eastern army from the oil town of Brega while encircling loyalists holed up among oil installations in the northwest of the town. As part of what now appears to be a countrywide effort to tighten the noose on Gaddafi before the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan begins around August 1, insurgents in the west said they were awaiting orders to start a fresh offensive from the Nafusa Mountains southwest of the capital.
