Libya rebels tighten noose on Gaddafi bastion

LIBYA: Libyan rebels closed in on Moamer Kadhafi’s hometown of Sirte from both east and west Sunday, a senior military commander said, as the insurgents scrambled to restore essential services to Tripoli.

Fierce fighting also raged in the west of the country as rebels trying to take full control of the region said they had fallen into an ambush in a town southwest of Zuwarah. Rebel forces moved to within 30 kilometres (18 miles) of Sirte from the west and captured Bin Jawad 100 kilometres to the east, the rebel commander in Misrata, Mohammed al-Fortiya, told AFP.

“We took Bin Jawad today” on the eastern front, and “the thwar (rebel fighters) from Misrata are 30 kilometres from Sirte” in the west, Fortiya said. Rebels pushing west from the oil hub of Ras Lanuf had been stuck for four days outside Bin Jawad, a key town on the coast road of the Gulf of Sirte, as Kadhafi’s forces kept up a defiant resistance. Sirte is the elusive Kadhafi’s last bastion after rebels smashed his forces in Tripoli and seized his Bab al-Aziziya headquarters.

AFP