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#Tripoli #Libya Rebels say Gaddafi troops abandon towns in west | Reuters reut.rs/n2H8Eg via @reuters
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(Reuters) - Libyan rebels launched an assault on Wednesday to drive forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi out of a strategic city on Tripoli's outskirts, and said that encircled Gaddafi troops had abandoned two towns further west.
After 41 years of supreme power, the 69-year-old Gaddafi is looking isolated, with reinvigorated rebel forces closing in on the capital from the west and south and cutting off its road links to the outside.
The rebels, aided by a NATO bombing campaign, have transformed the battle in the last few days by seizing most of the city of Zawiyah on Tripoli's western outskirts, as well as a town to the south, cutting Tripoli's two main supply routes.
A rebel spokesman said remnants of Gaddafi's forces further west -- now cut off from the capital and effectively encircled following the capture of Zawiyah -- had abandoned two towns and were retreating toward the Tunisian border.
"Gaddafi's forces this morning withdrew from the towns of Tiji and Badr because they felt surrounded from all sides," said the spokesman, named Abdulrahman, by telephone from Zintan, a rebel headquarters in the Western Mountains.
"The revolutionaries have now entered Tiji and Badr. The (Gaddafi) brigades retreated to Zuwarah and Jameel, near the Tunisian border. I think they will surrender soon because roads to Tripoli are closed," he added.
The account could not be independently confirmed. Gaddafi's government has played down the rebel advances of the past week.
ZAWIYAH ASSAULT
In Zawiyah, which controls the main highway linking Tripoli to the Tunisian border, Gaddafi forces have retained control of an oil refinery and have harassed the rebels with shelling and snipers on rooftops of tall buildings.
"There are some snipers inside the refinery facility. We control the gates of the refinery. We will be launching an operation to try to take control of it shortly," said rebel fighter Abdulkarim Kashaba.
Around noon, as an exchange of fire could be heard from the area, he said the operation was under way.
Under a bridge rebels loaded large-caliber ammunition into a car and headed toward the refinery for the assault. Other rebels could be seen speeding in that direction.
Gaddafi's green flags could be seen still flying from a refinery building and an electrical pylon. The rest of the city now flies the red, black and green flag used by the rebels.
The Zawiyah refinery has been one of the few sources of fuel for Gaddafi's troops and residents of the capital. The rebel commander in charge of the attack on it, Osama al-Arusee, said the pipeline linking it with Tripoli was severed on Tuesday. He said ten refinery workers were trapped by Gaddafi's troops who would not let them leave.
Elsewhere in the city, Zawiyah appeared quiet on Wednesday and under rebel control. The city was largely deserted and shops were boarded up, with clusters of rebel fighters in the streets.
Medical workers at a hospital on the outskirts said three people had been killed and 35 injured on Tuesday, most of them civilians, as Gaddafi's troops shelled the town and snipers fired from its rooftops.
