Libyan rebel chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil said on Saturday "the end is very near" for Muammar Qadhafi and that it will be "catastrophic," as insurgents pushing on the capital claimed to have seized a third key town in 24 hours. "We have contacts with people from the inner circle of Qadhafi," said the chairman of the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC). "All evidence (shows) that the end is very near, with God's grace."
Abdel Jalil was speaking to reporters as a flurry of rumours suggested that Qadhafi was preparing to flee Libya. "I expect a catastrophic end for him and his inner circle, and I expect that he will a create a situation within Tripoli. I hope my expectation is wrong," Abdel Jalil said.
"That would be a good thing that will end the bloodshed and help us avoid material costs. But I do not expect that he will do that," Abdel Jalil added. Earlier, rebels claimed to have captured the strategic eastern oil hub of Brega, a day after saying they had seized two other key towns.
However, rebel Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani said retreating Qadhafi forces were shelling the city's industrial zone on Saturday and that his men had pulled back to its eastern edge to avoid unnecessary casualties and property damage. Meanwhile, the rebels said former premier Abdessalam Jalloud, who fell out of favour with the Libyan strongman in the mid-1990s but remains a highly popular figure, had defected and joined their ranks.
Yet both they and the regime downplayed the significance of his departure, after he reportedly flew to Italy from neighbouring Tunisia with his family. The official JANA news agency said "Jalloud had remained away from politics out of his own free will, and spent most of his time abroad for (medical) care for heart disease" and that "there is nothing worth mentioning" him.
In Benghazi, Bani said "he's an official that was marginalised a long time ago. We don't think that he holds any information to help the rebels, that he can be useful for the revolution." Jalloud's defection comes amid rumours that the Libyan strongman himself was preparing to flee as rebels appear to be closing in on the capital.
He was among the officers who grabbed power with Qadhafi in 1969 and was long considered the regime's second-in-command before being gradually sidelined in the 1990s. Prime minister during the 1970s, he retired from politics following his dispute with Qadhafi and lived under hour arrest. Libya's Awalam television channel quoted the former premier on its news ticker as saying: "Qadhafi's regime is finished."
On the ground, a top-ranking rebel official said of Brega, "the industrial zone is under our control; all Brega is now under our control." On Friday they claimed the western refinery town of Zawiyah to be free, the last major barrier as they try to advance on Tripoli from the west. The refinery is the only source of fuel to the capital, and could leave it without critical supplies. Insurgents also said they seized Zliten from Qadhafi's forces, hours after saying they were in the town's centre, 150 kilometres (93 miles) east of Tripoli.
Rebels have been seeking to sever Tripoli's supply lines from Tunisia to the west and to Qadhafi's home town of Sirte in the east, hoping to cut off the capital, prompt defections and spark an uprising inside Tripoli. Meanwhile, a Tunisian defence official said Tunisian troops clashed with a group of armed Libyans overnight in the country's south-west.