News from FoxNews - Rebels Launch Push in Western Libya- Yemeni Troops, Tribal Fighters Clash in Capitalhttp://buz.tw/VDYj9
via BuzTweetFavorite Retweet
Booms of shelling and rocket fire echoed from the front lines, centered around the town of Bir Ghanam, where the rebel force backed by tanks fought Qaddafi's troops much of the day. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/08/06/rebels-launch-push-in-western-libya-aim-for-coast/#ixzz1UHV5psBn
Booms of shelling and rocket fire echoed from the front lines, centered around the town of Bir Ghanam, where the rebel force backed by tanks fought Qaddafi's troops much of the day. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/08/06/rebels-launch-push-in-western-libya-aim-for-coast/#ixzz1UHV5psBn
At dawn, thousands of opposition fighters pushed out of the Nafusa Mountains, a range near the Tunisian border, into the coastal plain toward their main objectives, Zawiya and Sabratha, two key regime-held towns on the Mediterranean west of the capital. Bir Ghanam, one of their initial targets Saturday, lies a little more than a third of the 50-mile distance to Zawiya Rebel commander Col. Jumma Ibrahim said opposition forces had captured Bir Ghanam and had moved a few miles beyond it, as well as making advances on a separate highway to Sabratha. His claims could not be independently confirmed. "Now he can only defend himself against us," Ibrahim said of Qaddafi. "Our main destination is Tripoli, but we cannot jump directly to Tripoli. We go one by one."Despite the ambitious goals, the new assault is certain to hit tough resistance, as it would push right into the heartland of Qaddafi's control. Zawiya, the rebel's main target on the coast, was the scene of a major uprising by anti-Qaddafi protesters early on in the conflict. The protesters took over the city and drove out regime supporters, but then were brutally crushed in a long, bloody siege. At a forward medical clinic set up in the hamlet of Bir Ayad, south of Bir Ghanam, doctors rushed to stabilize wounded fighters coming back from the front, as other rebels rested from the battle. Medical officials said five rebels and three regime soldiers had been killed in the fighting.
