Libyan rebels dug into defensive positions and took more casualties on Monday, stalled in their advance toward Tripoli in a slowing campaign that is starting to irk NATO allies.
Shelling by forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, which has stopped the insurgents’ latest advance in the west, killed eight rebel fighters and injured 25, according to hospital sources in the rebel stronghold of Misrata.
France expressed impatience over the weekend at the inability to reach a political solution to the crisis after months of static fighting and stepped up pressure on rebels to negotiate an end to the conflict.
Photo: Reuters
However, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on Monday the NATO-led alliance still needed to keep up its military pressure on Qaddafi’s army and reiterated that his stepping down was a necessary condition for an end to the conflict.
France also denied comments by one of Qaddafi’s sons that it was in direct talks with the Libyan leader’s government.
At one of Libya’s two major frontlines, Misrata, rebels were dug into defensive positions and conserving ammunition, getting ready to push against pro-Qaddafi forces in the neighboring town of Zlitan.
Zlitan is the first in a chain of coastal towns blocking the rebels on a westward march to the capital.
“Right now we are just waiting for ammunition and getting ready to go, but in my opinion if we had more ammunition we could already be in Zlitan,” said rebel fighter Ali Bashir Swayeba, a 29-year-old dentist.
A Reuters team near the front reported bursts of fire and the occasional explosion of a Grad rocket.
At one point, a group of children played soccer, although that was interrupted by a nearby Grad explosion.
The rebels have refused to hold talks as long as Qaddafi remains in power, a stance that before now none of NATO’s major powers had publicly challenged.
Qaddafi has been holding on to power in the face of rebel attacks trying to break his 41-year rule, NATO air strikes, economic sanctions and the defections of prominent members of his government.
A son of the Libyan leader, Saif al-Islam, told Algerian newspaper El Khabar in an interview on Monday that Qaddafi’s government was in talks with the French government.
Speaking from Tripoli, he said: “The truth is that we are negotiating with France and not with the rebels.”
“France said: ‘When we reach an agreement with you [Tripoli], we will force the [rebel] council to cease fire,’” he was quoted as saying.
The French Foreign Ministry denied it was in talks with Qaddafi’s government.
With the conflict stalemated, cracks are emerging within the NATO alliance. Some member states are balking at the burden on their recession-hit finances and many are frustrated there has been no breakthrough.
Strains over Libya are expected on Friday when the contact group, which brings together the countries allied against Qaddafi, meets in Istanbul, Turkey.
There was no immediate reaction to the French minister’s comments from the rebel leadership at its headquarters in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.
Rebel forces trying to march on Tripoli have made modest gains in the past week, but the fighting on Monday underlined it would be a long slog.
In the Western Mountains region southwest of Tripoli, rebels again came under fire from Qaddafi’s forces. A rebel spokesman in Nalut, Mohammed, said the rebels were able to destroy two houses used as ammunition warehouses near Libya’s border with Tunisia.
Qaddafi’s forces launched a heavy artillery bombardment to try to push back rebel fighters, who last week seized the village of al-Qawalish, 100km south of Tripoli.
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