Libya rebels say they hold gains south of capital: NALUT, Libya (Reuters) - Libyan rebels said on Sunday they w...http://yhoo.it/nAVtey
NALUT, Libya (Reuters) - Libyan rebels said on Sunday they were firmly in control of the town of Bir al-Ghanam, a staging post about 80 km (50 miles) south of Tripoli, rejecting a government assertion they had been pushed back. A small settlement in the desert, Bir al-Ghanam is also the closest point the rebels have come to Muammar Gaddafi's stronghold in the capital, lending it a strategic role in the rebels' six-month campaign to end Gaddafi's rule. Rebel commanders in the region said on Saturday they had seized control of Bir al-Ghanam in an offensive in which four anti-Gaddafi fighters had died. Taking the town -- which lies on a highway leading north to the Mediterranean coast and on to Tripoli -- would break weeks of stalemate during which rebels have been unable to make big advances despite NATO air strikes on government forces. Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi Ali Al-Mahmoudi said on Sunday that rebels, under NATO air cover, had seized Bir al-Ghanam temporarily but they had been driven out by local volunteers and Libyan forces.
"This is exactly what happened in Bir al-Ghanam, which is back in the hands of the honorable and brave local tribes ... and under the legitimate control of the government of Libya," he told a news conference in Tripoli. But a local commander rejected t
