@ZeevBAZeev
(Reuters) - Rebels in western Libya advanced north to within 25 km (15 miles) of the coastal city of Zawiyah on Saturday after a six-hour battle with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's forces.
Rebel fighters pushed government troops back about 7 km from their previous positions, fixing a front line about 5 km north of the village of Bir Shuaib, near a diaper factory. They set up a checkpoint on the road and about 150 fighters gathered, some firing weapons in the air to celebrate their advance.
Rebels said it had been a heavy battle, with pro-Gaddafi forces using anti-tank guns. A medic said three rebel fighters were wounded in the battle but none were killed. Government troops withdrew after six hours of fighting, the rebels said.
"God willing, we will be attacking Zawiyah in one or two days," said local rebel commander Mokhtar Lakdar.
Judging by impact craters, wrecked buildings and burned-out tanks, NATO warplanes have bombed government military targets on the route of the rebel advance over the past week, providing close air support.
HOME TOWN
Zawiyah is the home town of many of the rebels battling on the western front. It has staged two uprisings against Gaddafi since March but remains in government hands along with its refinery and harbor on the Mediterranean coast.
Rebels hope to capture Zawiyah and cut off Gaddafi's stronghold, the capital Tripoli, from access to the outside world along the coast road.
Gaddafi's Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim on Friday said the rebels could not take Zawiyah and the western coastal highway. "In their dreams," he said. A captured Libyan intelligence officer told Reuters the army had reinforced its garrison in the town and was ready for a fight.
On Libya's most easterly front, at least 21 rebels and government soldiers were killed in fighting for the oil terminal of Brega in the past two days, hospital workers said.
A volunteer at the hospital in Ajdabiyah, where fighters wounded in Brega are taken, said 15 rebel fighters had been killed and about 50 wounded. He said the bodies of six government soldiers were brought in on Friday.
In fighting around a second eastern front in Misrata, much closer to Tripoli, at least six rebels were killed in the past 24 hours, rebel sources said.
A rebel spokesman from the Brega battle said forces opposed to Gaddafi were fighting their way south from the residential town of New Brega toward the terminal, 15 km (10 miles) away and had knocked out two government tanks.
Rebels took New Brega on Thursday but Gaddafi's forces still control the port, oil terminal and refinery, which has changed hands several times over months of fighting in eastern Libya.
"We are advancing from the residential area," rebel commander Fawzi Bukatif told Reuters by telephone. "There are a few Gaddafi tanks and we've destroyed two of them."
OIL EXPORTS
Rebels want control of the oil facilities 750 km east of Tripoli to begin exporting oil from Brega.
Kaim said the rebels had not entered the city of Brega and told a news conference more than 20 rebels had been killed in fighting round the city.
In Misrata, a port on the Mediterranean under rebel control for months and about 580 km west of Brega, six rebel fighters were killed in fighting on Friday. There was no word on government casualties.
Three rebels were killed west of the city where they are fighting to capture Zlitan, a town 160 km east of Tripoli. Three others died in battles with Gaddafi's forces in the town of Tawargha, east of Misrata.
Gaddafi is clinging to power despite a near five-month-old NATO air campaign, the tightening of economic sanctions and a lengthening war with rebels trying to end his 41-year rule.
The rebels have seized large swathes of the North African state, but are divided and fighting on three fronts.
Zawiyah lies less than 50 km west of Tripoli, on the main road to Tunisia, which has been a lifeline for Libya but has begun to crack down on rampant smuggling of gasoline.
Rebels in the Western Mountains can muster a few thousand men if their separate units join forces.
On the diplomatic front, a Tunisian government official said on Friday there had been contacts last week between U.S. envoys and Gaddafi's representatives on Tunisian soil. The official, who declined to be named, gave no further details.
U.S. officials met Gaddafi representatives last month to deliver a message that the embattled Libyan leader must go.
(Additional reporting by Tarek Amara in Tunisia, Missy Ryan in Tripoli, Robert Birsel in Benghazi, Joseph Nasr in Berlin; Writing by Douglas Hamilton; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
$INS01; Line LNY Insave:- TI line name (Map report)
