Libya’s rebels said yesterday their war against Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s regime had entered a “decisive phase” and that victory was possible by the end of the month.
That confident claim was echoed by the country’s exiled crown prince, and came after Washington said the “days are numbered” for veteran strongman Qaddafi’s regime.
As the chorus grew, fighting raged across Libya, with the rebels denying they were in talks with a defiant Qaddafi, who predicted a swift victory against both the rebels and NATO.
“Our forces totally control Zawiyah [to the west of the capital], which will open the way to Tripoli. This will allow the population there to revolt,” said Mansur Saif al-Nasr, the rebel National Transitional Council’s (NTC) envoy to Paris.
“We are entering a decisive phase. Soon we will liberate all of southern Libya. We hope to celebrate the final victory at the same time as the end of Ramadan” on or around Aug. 31, he told RFI radio.
Zawiyah is a vital oil port on Libya’s Mediterranean coast, 40km west of Tripoli. Rebels claimed on Monday to control “most” of the town, but Qaddafi’s loyalist forces continued to bombard the area with Grad rockets.
Six Grad missiles hit Zawiyah, sparking a fierce heavy artillery exchange that caused an unknown number of casualties.
In a report yesterday on its operations a day earlier, NATO said it had hit tanks and an armed vehicle near Zawiyah.
In western Libya, Qaddafi forces shelled the center of Zawiyah on Monday hours after rebels claimed they had seized most of the strategic port, a reporter said.
Abdulsalam Othman, spokesman for the rebel western military council, said on Monday that both towns were in rebel hands, as well as the 15km stretch of road linking Sorman to Zawiyah, which he said meant that Tripoli’s supply lines from Tunisia were severed.
Qaddafi spokesman Mussa Ibrahim denied the rebel claims, saying regime forces were in “total control” of Zawiyah, and that the insurgent presence was “very weak.”
He said it was actually government troops that had cut the highway leading to Tunisia to “protect people.”
The rebels also claimed to have wrested control of the town of Sorman, 60km west of Tripoli, and Garyan, 50km to the south.
Ibrahim said government forces had already retaken Sorman and would “soon retake Garyan.”
He also said government forces had repulsed a major rebel attack coordinated with NATO on Tiji, in the Nafusa Mountains south of Tripoli, and that 40 prisoners had been taken.
On the eastern front, rebels battled loyalist forces around oil installations on Monday in the town of Brega, where the rebels have seized rows of seaside apartment blocks that once housed oil workers.
After a week of street-by-street combat, Brega was like a ghost town.
Under the shade of trees lay the bombed out carcass of a rocket-launching battery, its tubes still aimed at the old rebel lines.
In an alleyway were the remains of a destroyed loyalist vehicle. Nearby, young fighters with long beards took a few minutes rest on the veranda of a house, greeting visitors with Allahu Akbar (“God is great”).
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