Fighting between forces loyal to Libya's Muammar Qadhafi and rebels trying to close in on his territory killed at least eight rebels near the north-western city of Nalut, an insurgent source said. The gun battles in the village of Takut, just outside Nalut, on Saturday followed exchanges of heavy artillery fire near the city of Zlitan as the insurgents tried to take government-held territory east of the capital Tripoli.
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The rebels are seeking to seal off Tripoli from the east and west but their advances have been slow and weeks of Nato strikes pounding Qadhafi's compound and other targets have failed to bring an end to his 41-year-old rule. "The battles started yesterday and are continuing today in Takut," the fighter, Abou Saa, told Reuters from Nalut, in arid hills some 200 km (125 miles) south-west of Tripoli.
"The revolutionaries destroyed six armoured vehicles and killed more than 45 enemy soldiers. The rebels surrounded Qadhafi's forces, who are holed up in a compound (in Takut)." He added that 13 rebels were wounded in the fighting. The report could not be immediately verified due to a lack of independent media access to the area and there was no immediate comment from Qadhafi's side.
On the other side of Tripoli, Zlitan, 160 km (100 miles) to the east, is the next major town on the Mediterranean coastal road to the capital from the rebel stronghold of Misrata. Capturing it would greatly advance the rebels' strategy of cutting off Tripoli from all sides. A Reuters team in Dafniya, on the outskirts of Misrata, said rebels fired artillery and rocket launchers on Friday but things were quieter on Saturday. An insurgent called Mohammed Ali suggested inexperience and indiscipline had slowed the revels.
The rebels have said they will not attack Zlitan because of local tribal sensitivities, but are recruiting fighters from the town and waiting for the residents to rise up against Qadhafi. Rebels are also fighting on another front: in the east near the oil port of Brega, 800 km (500 miles) east of Tripoli.
They have made important gains on all three fronts the past few weeks, but remain far from seizing their ultimate prize - Qadhafi's powerbase of Tripoli and its hinterland. Nato planes resumed bombardments of Tripoli on Friday. Six explosions sent columns of black smoke into the sky. Qadhafi vowed to defeat Nato nonetheless.
"This is the first time they are facing an armed nation of millions. The alliance will be defeated," he said in an audio speech on Libyan television on Friday. "We are in our country and we are determined to stay and defend it." In Misrata, rebel spokesman Ahmed Hassan said 10 civilians had been killed and another 40 wounded when Qadhafi's forces shelled the city on Friday, a claim which could not be verified.
A Nato military spokesman, Wing Commander Mike Bracken, said in a briefing that west of Misrata there were "some positive signs that civilians are unifying against the Qadhafi regime" and that "for the time being pro-Qadhafi forces appear unable to strongly counter the anti-Qadhafi forces' incremental advances". Another Nato bombardment struck in the region of Gzayha, on the Tunisian border, resident Mohamed Nagez said.
Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi Ali Al-Mahmoudi told a late night news conference that Libya would appeal to the UN Security Council for a halt to Nato's aerial bombings. He said one air strike had hit the Al Fateh University. "It has become clear to us that Nato has moved on to deliberately target civilian buildings. Who is killing civilians now? It is indeed Nato," he said. Libyan state-owned Jamahiriya TV said later the prime minister had called UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to call for an extraordinary session to investigate.