"Opposition says its forces have reached Al-Heisha and captured two towns on supply roads in campaign to isolate...fb.me/G3v3TVdL
Libyan opposition forces have pushed further to isolate Tripoli, moving towards a western town that links the capital and Sirte - the hometown and a stronghold for the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi. "The scouting teams of the revolutionaries reached the outskirts of Al-Heisha after expelling Gaddafi forces," the rebel military command said in a statement early on Wednesday. Al-Heisha lies roughly 70km south of Misrata and 250km from Tripoli, near two key crossroads that link loyalist-held territory in the west with that in the oil-rich Sirte basin. It was just the latest in a series of battlefield operations to isolate the capital. In addition to gaining a foothold in Az-Zawiyah, rebels said they had taken two towns near Tripoli on key supply roads Gharyan, 80km south of the capital and Surman, less than 16km west of Az-Zawiyah. "Gharyan is fully in the hands of the revolutionaries," a rebel spokesman, Abdulrahman, said by telephone. "Gaddafi has been isolated. He has been cut off from the outside world." Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim acknowledged in remarks broadcast on state television that rebel fighters were in Gharyan. "There are still armed gangs inside the city. We are able to drive them out," he said. But while rebels controlled most of Az-Zawiyah, Gaddafi forces shelled the city, wounding several civilians. Funerals were held for 23 others who rebels said were killed the previous day. "We shut down all four pipelines to Tripoli," El-Bouaisi said, whose claim could not be verified. Nuri el-Bouaisi, an oil production engineer in the city, said rebels had cut off pipelines that transport gasoline and diesel fuel to Tripoli.
