Libyan rebels renewed their push against leader Muammar Qadhafi's forces on Friday, coming under heavy fire just days after making hefty advances towards Tripoli on two fronts. Tens of thousands of supporters of the defiant Qadhafi rallied in Tripoli's Green Square for Friday prayers, underscoring his refusal to step down after four decades in power and five months of fighting.
At least five rebels were killed and 17 injured on the front line near Misrata, on Libya's Mediterranean coast, according to local medical workers. Rebels there came under heavy artillery fire from Qadhafi's forces and a Reuters team near the front saw a mortar shell land near a rebel unit.
Five members of the rebel unit were wounded, two seriously, the Reuters team said. One fighter's fingers were partly severed and hanging from his hand after the explosion. A rebel sympathiser in Misrata told Reuters opposition forces had been moving closer to neighbouring Zlitan, one of a chain of government-controlled towns blocking their advance to Tripoli.
As they advanced, pro-Qadhafi troops inside the city fired rounds of explosives to block their progress, the sympathiser said in an e-mail. "The rebels are waiting for Nato backup or for Qadhafi forces to run out of ammunition to make a move to take the city centre," he said.
On the other major front, the Western Mountains region south-west of Tripoli, Nato warplanes bombed forces loyal to Qadhafi several times in mid-afternoon, their bombs landing about 3 km (2 miles) east of the village of al Qawalish, according to one rebel fighter. After weeks of static fighting, the rebels made significant advances on Wednesday: pushing west from Misrata to 13 km (8 miles) of Zlitan, where large numbers of pro-Qadhafi forces are based, and seizing the village of Al-Qawalish in the south-west.
Taking Al-Qawalish brings them closer to taking control of a major highway into the capital. Tens of thousands of Qadhafi supporters and tribal leaders rallied in Tripoli's Green Square for Friday prayers and a sermon predicting a swift end to the rebellion. Preacher Ali Abu-Sowah told thousands of worshippers Libya could implement reform without the intervention of the West and accused the rebels of being Western stooges.
"How can we allow such meddling when we see what happened in beloved Iraq and Afghanistan?" he said. He also praised what he called "dear" Saudi Arabia - which has had variable relations with Qadhafi in the past - for having not recognised the opposition National Transitional Council.
Hundreds of African migrants have been airlifted from government-controlled southern Libya to the capital of Chad since Wednesday, according to the International Organisation for Migration. Up to 2,000 Chadian and other African migrants are still marooned in southern Libya, and have spent weeks living in the open with limited access to food, water and health services.
Qadhafi has rejected any suggestion that he will give up power and he has described the Nato campaign as an act of colonial aggression aimed at stealing Libya's oil. In what may be the latest financial squeeze on Qadhafi, Turkey has frozen $1 billion of Libyan central bank reserves deposited in its banks, a Turkish newspaper reported on Friday.
The Star newspaper cited officials from Turkey's foreign and economic ministries in its report, and said the National Transitional Council had urged Turkey to release the reserves to it during a visit by a Libyan rebel leader this week.