Libya News:

Rebels Battle Gadhafi Forces Around Coastal City

By JOE PARKINSON

Associated Press

Rebels prepare before attacking Gadhafi troops on the frontline of Dafneya near Misrata, Libya, on Saturday.

TRIPOLI, Libya—Rebel fighters were battling forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi Saturday along the Mediterranean coast west of Tripoli, seeking to fight their way back into the strategically important city of Zawiya for the first time since government troops crushed an opposition uprising in March.

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The government in Tripoli confirmed that there had been clashes around the city, which houses a major refinery and oil terminal and is less than 60 kilometers from the capital, but the account differed significantly from the testimony of the rebels. A London-based spokesman for the rebels' Benghazi-based Transitional National Council, Guma el-Gamaty, said opposition fighters were in control of a large section of the town western side of the city.

But Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said the rebels had exaggerated the seriousness of the clashes in the town, which had now been contained by government forces. "There's no serious fighting inside Zawiya. … what has happened is that we had small groups of rebels who have made their way from the western mountains to cause trouble in these areas," he said.

Colonel Gadhafi's forces fought for more than a week to recapture Zawiya in February after the town rebelled.

A hospital doctor in the Libyan city of Misrata says dozens have died in fighting between government forces and rebels. Video courtesy of Reuters.

The extent of the rebel advance into Zawiyah couldn't be independently verified, but reporters en route from Tripoli to the Tunisian border said government soldiers had sealed off parts of a crucial coastal road that serves as a key artery for supplies of food and fuel into the capital.

The highway was punctuated by checkpoints staffed by loyalist gunmen, while shops were shuttered, forcing the reporters' bus to divert along an agricultural road. A different group of reporters travelling in the other direction several hours later confirmed that the coastal road was still closed, suggesting that the clashes were continuing.

The coastal road is a crucial supply line for the Gadhafi regime, which is locked under naval blockade, a NATO-enforced no-fly zone, and pressured by continuing airstrikes by the alliance's warplanes and attack helicopters. The assault in Zawiya underscores the military challenges the regime must overcome to prevent rebel attacks across vast swathes of territory.

Confirmation of clashes in Zawiyah means that rebel forces are now fighting Col. Gadhafi's military on a number of fronts—in the enclave around rebel-held Misrata, to the west in the Nafusa mountains, against the main opposition forces in Brega in the east, and Zawiyah in the west. If the rebels managed to take Zawiyah, it would advance their aim of encircling the capital and cut off its supply lines.

News of the Zawiyah clashes follow heavy fighting Friday on the outskirts of the rebel-held port city of Misrata, where at least 30 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in a fierce offensive by Col. Gadhafi's forces.

Despite taking heavy casualties, Misrata's rebels retained control of the farmland area known as Dafniya, some 18 miles to the west of the city, with some rebels saying they wanted to advance further west and capture Zlitin, the next regime-controlled town on the highway to Tripoli, with the help of recently deployed U.K. and French helicopters. However, others argued that Zlitin's residents must rise up first against Col. Gadhafi in order not to provoke tribal warfare.

—Sam Dagher in Misrata, Libya, contributed to this article.
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