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Benghazi, Monday. Libyan rebels in the western town of Zliten were said to be low on ammunition but their peers were in control today of the key southwest town of Bir Ghanam which the regime claimed to have retaken.
Abdul Wahab Melitan, a rebel spokesman in the port city of Misrata near Zliten, said forces loyal to strongman Muammar Gaddafi had launched an assault on rebel positions in Zliten's Souk Telat area, killing three and wounding 15.
"The rebels lack ammunition to advance and we do not want to risk losing any ground," Melitan said.
Meanwhile, a rebel source at Al-Qusbat, around 90 kilometres east of the capital Tripoli, said that town was living through its fourth day under siege.A group of rebels on Thursday overran Gaddafi forces based in one of the town's schools, but since then the rebels have been battling to hold on to their gains.
In Tripoli, Prime Minister Baghdadi Mahmudi told reporters that government troops had recaptured the strategic town of Bir Ghanam, southwest of the capital, from insurgents.
"Life is back to normal in Bir Ghanam, and today it is under the full control of the regime," Mahmudi said.
But rebels were in control of the town early Monday, an AFP journalist said.
"The rebels are controlling the checkpoints. There are no shots," the journalist said, adding that Nato warplanes were flying overhead.Rebels from the Berber-dominated Nafusa mountain range south of Tripoli claimed the capture of Bir Ghanam just 80 kilometres from the capital on Saturday, as they pushed further east.
The rebels have been using the Nafusa as a springboard to advance on Tripoli but have encountered strong resistance from fighters loyal to Kadhafi. Mahmudi also condemned the intensification of Nato raids on Tripoli and other cities, claiming that the alliance no longer "differentiates between civilian and military sites." Nato said its warplanes attacked 45 targets across Libya on Saturday, including an ammunition storage facility and a multiple rocket launcher system in the Bir Ghanam area. Mahmudi criticised the National Transitional Council (NTC), the rebels' de facto government, and the security situation in the rebel-controlled east.
(AFP)
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