Libyan rebel fighters' eyes on Tripoli

Rebels say they ousted Gadhafi's forces from Qawalish several days agoThe small village is 90 miles south of Tripoli The fighters appear spirited, flashing victory signs and posing for photosAided by NATO strikes, they are hoping to unseat the longtime Libyan leader

Qawalish, Libya (CNN) -- Almost all civilians have fled the western Libya area around Qawalish, hoping to avoid the worst of the violence wracking the nation.

Yet there is a buzz around this village, which is in the hands of rebel fighters eager to defeat forces loyal to longtime Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

Their optimism and energy are matched, in many ways, by their inexperience.

When spotters on a rooftop spy vehicles they believe belong to the Libyan army, a rebel rocket team wipes off desert grit from their weapon, oils it up and fires -- their aim, at best, approximate.

The group's commander, Fahti, knows the opposition forces are in many ways overmatched.

"They have tanks. You hear that? Rockets," Fahti said. "They have mortars, all the heavy weapons."

Dressed in everything from military fatigues to polo shirts to T-shirts, the rebels are not the stereotypical picture of a modern fighting force. But despite their challenges, the rebels here have had success.

That includes, they say, driving Libyan forces several days ago out of the village 45 kilometers (90 miles) south of Tripoli, a key north-south route in the North African nation.

One fighter said Gadhafi's men are "very afraid" that rebels will soon take another big step forward by taking his home city of Gharyan, which is 45 kilometers to the north and just 100 kilometers south of the Libyan capital.

While strongest in the east near Benghazi, the opposition remains active around much of Libya.

A fighter named Mahmoud told CNN on Saturday that his comrades had conducted night raids and ambushes, for instance, around his native Zamiya, a coastal city still in the government's hands about 50 kilometers from Tripoli.

"But on the coast Gadhafi is strong, he has his people everywhere," Mahmoud said.

The opposition continues to get help in the form of NATO strikes. The alliance announced in a statement Saturday that it had struck a missile-firing position near Tawhurgha, south of Misrata, that it claims was tucked within a set of farm buildings.

Libyan forces used this area to attack civilians in nearby Misrata through missile strikes and as a staging area for attacks, NATO said.

In Qawalish, the rebels had some good fortune after coming upon an abandoned army base, and its boxes stacked almost to the ceiling with mortar and artillery rounds. The find was a welcome one for a force that, until recently, was struggling to muster the weaponry to keep up the fight.

Those rolling through checkpoints around the village are almost exclusively rebel fighters, drawn to the battlefront by their commitment to a common cause. Their enthusiasm appears strong as they drive by, crammed into the back of pickup trucks, smiling broadly and flashing victory signs.

And even with the sounds of war in the distance, some rebels pose for pictures -- victory photos, they hope, in their quest to end Gadhafi's 42 years in power.

CNN

Battle for Libya oil town, fighting near Tripoli (Reuters)

BENGHAZI/ZAWIYAH, Libya (Reuters) – Rebels fighting against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi say they were repulsed by his forces in a battle to retake the eastern oil town of Brega, suffering at least four dead.

In the west, rebels said they were fighting Gaddafi's forces for a second day in the town of Zawiyah Sunday, bringing the revolt against his rule closer to the capital.

The rebels said they had lost at least four killed in fighting between Brega and Ajdabiyah. At least 65 fighters were wounded, doctors at the hospital in the rebel stronghold city of Benghazi said.

"We attacked them first but they attacked us back. We tried to get to Brega but that was difficult," Haithan Elgwei, a rebel fighter, said after returning from the front with the wounded.

"NATO (aircraft) were covering us from above but Gaddafi troops fired rockets and mortars outside Brega," Akram, 24, a wounded fighter, said.

"We will not retreat. We look forward to taking Tripoli," he added.

The fresh outbreak of fighting in Zawiyah, west of Tripoli and home to a big oil refinery, marks the closest the armed rebellion has come to Gaddafi's stronghold in the capital for months.

Reporters taken by the government to see Zawiyah, which saw intense fighting at the start of the anti-Gaddafi uprising in February and has changed hands several times, found it eerily quiet Sunday, with almost no one in sight.

Saturday, Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said there was "no serious fighting" there.

Sunday, he told reporters that no more than 100 rebel fighters who had attacked to the west of the city were holed up after suffering losses and the government was trying to negotiate their surrender.

"They were defeated after a few hours of scattered skirmishes with the army," he added.

Not long after the reporters left Zawiyah, rebel spokesman M'hamed Ezzawi said by phone there was heavy fighting 400 m (yards) from the main square.

"The brigades are using heavy weapons. They are better equipped than the revolutionaries," he said. "We have no statistics so far as to the number of martyrs but there are at least seven wounded among the revolutionaries."

"DAYS ARE NUMBERED"

After the nationwide rebellion against Gaddafi's 41-year rule erupted in February, his security forces snuffed out the rebels in Zawiyah, a prelude to the revolt elsewhere in Libya losing its initial momentum.

Three months later, the war has shifted again, with Gaddafi's grip on power weakened by defections, the impact of sanctions on supplies and NATO air strikes that have struck his compound in Tripoli.

Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, in an interview with Reuters, said there was a growing confidence that Gaddafi's "days are numbered."

Libyan state television broadcast images of Gaddafi -- who has been keeping a low profile since NATO began its air strikes -- meeting Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, president of the international chess federation.

Ilyumzhinov, quoted by Russian news agencies, said he played a game of chess in Tripoli with the Libyan leader, who told him he had no intention of leaving his country.

REBEL RECOGNITION

The United Arab Emirates said it had recognized the rebel Transitional National Council, based in Benghazi, joining a small but growing list of states which view the council as Libya's legitimate representatives.

Gaddafi has called the NATO intervention with warplanes and attack helicopters an act of colonial aggression aimed at grabbing Libya's plentiful oil.

In Tripoli residents have told Reuters of anti-Gaddafi protests, though these have been quickly dispersed by his security forces.

"The districts of Tripoli are waiting for a signal so they can all rise up together," said a resident of the city who did not want to be named for fear of reprisals.

NATO member states are keen for a quick resolution in Libya because their voters do not want another long, costly conflict along the lines of those in Iraq and Afghanistan.

(Additional reporting by Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers, Mussab Al-Khairall in Tripoli, Matt Robinson in Misrata, Kate Kelland in London, Andrew Hammond in Dubai and Jan Strupczewski in Brussels; Writing by Michael Roddy; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

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Libya rebels battle into key oil port near Tripoli (AP)

By DIAA HADID and MAGGIE MICHAEL, Associated Press Diaa Hadid And Maggie Michael, Associated Press – 2 hrs 47 mins ago

ZAWIYA, Libya – Libyan rebels battled their way back into a major oil port just 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Tripoli on Saturday, forcing Moammar Gadhafi's troops to close the vital coast highway and key supply route from Tunisia. The renewed rebel offensive marked a significant rebound for opposition forces who were crushed and driven out of the city nearly three months ago.

Rebels first took Zawiya in early March, but were brutally expelled less than two weeks later in an assault by members of an elite brigade commanded by Gadhafi's son Khamis. That had left rebels with only tenuous footholds in Libya's far west.

On Saturday, Guma el-Gamaty, a London-based spokesman for the rebels' political leadership council, said opposition fighters had taken control of a large area on the western side of the city. A rebel fighter who fled Zawiya at the end of March said "there are clashes inside Zawiya itself." The rebel, who identified himself only as Kamal, said "the fighters are back in the city" and that he had spoken with them.

While too early to mark a breakthrough in the stalemated civil war between Gadhafi forces and the rebels, who control roughly the eastern third of the country, an opposition offensive so near the capital was bound to put a nearly intolerable burden on Gadhafi forces.

They have been riddled by defections, badly hurt by ongoing U.N.-sanctioned NATO airstrikes and facing huge resupply problems as a result of the naval blockade that has clamped off ports. The international actions are designed to help the four-month-old rebel uprising to drive Gadhafi from nearly 40 years in power in the oil-rich North African country.

Apparently prompted by the Zawiya clashes Saturday, Libyan soldiers sealed off parts of a crucial coastal road leading from Tripoli west to the Tunisian border.

An AP reporter traveling the coastal highway approaching Zawiya from the capital reported it was clogged with soldiers and loyalist gunmen with assault rifles, some patrolling the road, others manning checkpoints. Roadside shops were shuttered. The only vehicles on the road were white jeep-style vehicles use by Gadhafi soldiers.

Civilian vehicles were directed onto a narrow agricultural road through olive groves and past grazing cattle and sprawling homes. Traffic on the agricultural rode crawled past Zawiya and was only allowed back on the coastal highway at historic Roman-era town of Sabrata, 20 miles (30 kilometers) west of the fighting.

The coastal road is a key artery from neighboring Tunisia for delivery for food, fuel and medicine for the Gadhafi regime.

Shelling continued sporadically Saturday near the rebel-held port city of Misrata, where Gadhafi forces hit towns on the western outskirts of the city, 125 miles (210 kilometers) east of Tripoli. More than 30 rebels were reported killed in government fire from tanks, artillery and incendiary rockets that rained down on Dafniya, about 18 miles (30 kilometers) west of Misrata.

Casualty figures came from a doctor at Hikma Hospital in Misrata, who would only give his first name, Ayman. He said the shelling began Friday morning, intensified toward nightfall and continued periodically Saturday.

Along the Dafniya front line Saturday, rebels rested on mattresses behind barriers of dirt and tried on new sneakers distributed by the Red Crescent. Others maneuvered pickup trucks outfitted with anti-aircraft guns through a grove of gnarled olive trees and toward Gadhafi troops. They claimed to have taken out a tank.

Explosions boomed in the distance.

Abdel-Aziz Ibrahim sat behind a dirt mound peering through a pair of binoculars at Gadhafi's troops moving on foot and in civilian cars through the olive trees.

"I see them left and right across the road," he said. "They are just waiting, but we can take them."

Misrata remained one of the most important rebel footholds in the Gadhafi controlled west. Government forces have the city surrounded on all sides but the north, where the city has access to the Mediterranean Sea for supplies and food through Libya's major port. Rebels have beaten back several government attempts to retake the city.

And now Gadhafi forces are pushing back as rebel forces try to break the siege for an advance on Tripoli.

A rebel fighter in Misrata who identifies himself only as Abdel-Salem said Gadhafi's sons Khamis and al-Moatassem and top aid Abdullah al-Senoussi are in command of the operation that is dug in at Zlitan, about nine miles (15 kilometers) from Dafniya.

"The situation is very bad there. Gadhafi sent huge forces to Zlitan to fortify the city because he knows that if Zlitan falls in the hands of the rebels, the way to Tripoli will be wide open," Abdel-Salem said. "Now the ball is in the court of NATO, but we have not seen any NATO planes flying over despite the fierce battle."

Rebels complain that NATO airstrikes have focused too heavily on Tripoli — the alliance has conducted some of the most intense strikes of the mission on the capital this week — while spending too little time in areas like Misrata and Zawiya.

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Michael reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Hadeel Al-Shalchi contributed this report from Dafniya, Libya.

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New round of NATO strikes hits Tripoli outskirts (AP)

TRIPOLI, Libya – NATO airstrikes rattled the Libyan capital Thursday with clusters of bombing runs believed to have targeted the outskirts of Tripoli.

At first, the intensity of the attacks suggested a return to the heavy NATO bombardment that hit military installations across the capital on Tuesday and flattened major buildings in leader Moammar Gadhafi's sprawling compound in the center of the city.

By nightfall Thursday, a total of 14 air attacks had been carried out, considerably fewer than Tuesday. There were eight explosions in a first series of strikes on Thursday and hours later, the sound of six more airstrikes boomed in the distance. Government officials did not say what had been targeted in the Thursday bombing runs.

The strikes are in support of a four-month-old rebel uprising that seeks to push Gadhafi from power after four decades. Rebels have taken control of swaths of eastern Libya, although fighting has since become a stalemate even with NATO support.

Gadhafi shows no signs of ceding power under the building pressure of the NATO strikes, despite repeated attacks on his compound, government buildings, military radar emplacements and other army installations.

But the chief of the U.S. CIA, Leon Panetta, said in testimony before the Senate Thursday the NATO military operation, strong economic sanctions, and enforcement of the no-fly zone are putting tremendous pressure on Gadhafi. U.S. President Barack Obama has named Panetta to take over as Defense Secretary this summer.

Among other signs of building pressure, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday that there are "numerous and continuing" overtures by people close to Gadhafi to negotiate his departure from power.

Speaking to reporters after an international conference on Libya in the United Arab Emirates, Clinton said proposals from "people close to Gadhafi" presented to unspecified countries included the "potential for a transition." But she said she could not predict if they would be accepted.

Fighting on the ground between Libyan government forces and the rebels had largely died down after the NATO strikes began. The Western alliance took to the skies over Libya under a U.N. resolution that allowed NATO flights to protect civilians. What began as a no-fly zone quickly evolved into strong attacks on the regime.

On Wednesday, however, Gadhafi forces renewed their shelling near the western city of Misrata, killing 10 rebel fighters. Misrata is one of the few footholds rebels have in western Libya. NATO reported it had destroyed a "electronic warfare vehicle" and military training camp in the vicinity of the city as government forces had renewed their assault on the port city.

In Brussels on Thursday, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the shelling near Misrata underscored the continued need to protect civilians.

"It is an example that the Gadhafi regime still constitutes a threat to the civilian population," he said. "We will stay committed as long as necessary," Fogh Rasmussen added.

Media in neighboring Tunisia, meanwhile, reported more defections Thursday from Gadhafi's military, including a general and 10 ranking officers who they said crossed into the country this week.

Despite the inability of NATO and the rebels so far to oust Gadhafi, preparations are being made for a post-Gadhafi era in the country.

At Thursday's meeting in the United Arab Emirates, donors pledged more than $1.3 billion to help support Libya's main opposition group. Italy and France offered a combined $1.02 billion to Libya's Transitional National Council, while Kuwait and Qatar promised a combined $280 million to a fund set up to provide transparent assistance to the opposition.

The pledges came as council members appealed for urgent infusions of cash to keep from going broke. The council is trying to establish an alternative government to take over after Gadhafi.

Libya's former U.N. ambassador, Abdurraham Mohamed Shalgham, attended the gathering as a senior official of the rebels' National Council. He said NATO should focus more strikes on Gadhafi forces around Misrata to help "the youth freedom fighters to move toward the capital Tripoli." Shalgham said he believed Gadhafi was in the final days of his rule.

"I think our youth will be in Tripoli in some weeks," Shalgham said.

Portuguese Foreign Minister Luis Amado said on Thursday that Lisbon soon would recognize the rebel administration.

Also on Thursday, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade visited Benghazi to meet with the Council's leaders. He urged Gadhafi to stop fighting and called for NATO to end airstrikes.

"I am someone who can help you (Gadhafi) to relieve yourself from political power," Wade told reporters in a message to the Libyan leader, stopping short of offering Senegal as a country of refuge.

NATO rejected any post-Gadhafi role for the alliance, saying it was imperative that the international community, the United Nations in particular, start preparations for helping the country's transition to a democratic government.

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Hadeel Al-Shalchi in Benghazi, Libya, and Matthew Lee in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

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Gadhafi strikes Libya rebels, NATO pounds Tripoli (AP)

By DIAA HADID and MIKE CORDER, Associated Press Diaa Hadid And Mike Corder, Associated Press – 6 mins ago

TRIPOLI, Libya – Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, increasingly cornered under a stunning upturn in NATO airstrikes, lashed back with renewed shelling of the western city of Misrata Wednesday, killing 10 rebel fighters.

The international alliance said it remained determined to keep pounding Gadhafi forces from the air, but would play no military role in the transition to democratic rule in oil-rich North African country once the erratic leader's 42-year rule was ended.

In Brussels, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Gadhafi's days in power were clearly numbered, making it imperative for the international community, the United Nations in particular, to gear up to help Libyans establish a new form of government.

"For Gadhafi, it is no longer a question of if he goes but when he goes," Fogh Rasmussen said at a meeting of the defense ministers from the 28 members of the North Atlantic military alliance.

"We do not see a lead role for NATO in Libya once this crisis is over," he said. "We see the United Nations playing a lead role in the post-Gadhafi, post-conflict scenario."

The alliance said it was acting in the skies over Libya purely in accordance with the U.N. mandate to protect the Libyan people from Gadhafi. The resolution did not include any involvement in post-conflict peacekeeping.

French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet said: "NATO has a military vocation and rebuilding Libya is a civilian issue. So really simply, in order to rebuild Libya, if the Libyan people ask for it, because it is first of all an issue for the Libyan people, it is the job for civilian international institutions — and not military — to bring a response"

The Libyan rebels, too, have made it clear they have no appetite to see alliance ground forces in the country once the conflict is finished.

But they remain grateful for NATO intervention and applaud the stepped-up alliance bombing campaign, a record 66 strike sorties over Tripoli and environs on Tuesday.

"We've always felt that relentless, continuous strikes would hasten the departure of (Gadhafi) or at least the circle around him, said rebel spokesman Jalal el-Gallal in Benghazi, the de facto rebel capital. "We're very glad that (NATO) is carrying out the actions, and it is a matter of time."

The cracks in the alliance also showed again Wednesday.

U.S. officials said Defense Secretary Robert Gates pointedly prodded five allied nations to share more of the burden of the NATO-led air campaign against Libya. None committed to do more.

The officials said Gates used his final NATO meeting before retirement to press Germany and Poland to join the military intervention, and Spain, Turkey and the Netherlands to contribute to strike missions against ground targets.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting of the alliance's defense ministers.

Wednesday's shelling on the outskirts of Misrata represented escalation in the more than 4-month-old uprising, which has spiraled into a civil war that has divided Libyan into zones controlled by Moammar Gadhafi and others by rebels.

Dr. Khalid Abufalgha of Misrata's central Hikma hospital said government forces tried to enter the city from three sides — the east, south and west — but rebel fighters kept them out. Gadhafi's forces then shelled the city from afar, killing 10 and injuring 24, he said.

All the dead were fighters manning rebel checkpoints outside the city, he said. Most were killed in the village of Tawargha, southeast of Misrata.

The daily death toll is the highest in Libya's third largest city since rebel fighters pushed government forces to the outskirts weeks ago. Misrata remains under siege, able to get food and other supplies only through its seaport.

Misrata is the only large rebel-held city in western Libya. The rebels also control a swath of eastern Libya around Benghazi and other towns in the western Nafusa mountain range.

NATO airstrikes thundered down on the Libyan capital on Wednesday, at least four during the day after five before dawn. Another strike hit Tripoli late in the evening.

It was not immediately clear what was targeted. However, NATO strikes appear to be repeatedly pounding the same set of targets: the sprawling Gadhafi compound in central Tripoli, a series of government buildings and radar installations and military bases on the outskirts of the capital.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said NATO remained determined to see the end of Gadhafi's rule. During a visit to Cairo, he reminded reporters of NATO's decision over the weekend to extend the Libyan mission for 90 days, into late September.

"I think it's very clear that NATO is very committed to this mission and committed to providing the kind of protection for the Libyan people that it has when it took the mission on and to focusing on a way to see Gadhafi out the door," he said.

He added that President Barack Obama "has been very clear and remains very clear that this will not involve boots on the ground from the United States perspective."

The pummeling NATO strikes of Tuesday and Wednesday made good on alliance warnings in recent days that attacks would be increasing the scope and intensity. British and French attack helicopters struck for the first time inside Libya over the weekend.

Wing Commander Mike Bracken at NATO's Libya operations headquarters in Naples told The Associated Press there has been "increased tempo over recent days over Tripoli" as the alliance seeks to further weaken Gadhafi's military.

But he stressed that "Gadhafi as an individual has not been a target and won't be a target."

Some 6,850 people, nearly all of them Libyans, have streamed across the border from Libya to Tunisia since Monday to flee the NATO raids as well as fighting between the rebels and government forces, according to the Tunisian Defense Ministry.

In Benghazi, Spanish Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez became the latest European official to visit and bolster the opposition forces.

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Corder contributed from Brussels. Associated Press Writers Hadeel Al-Shalchi in Benghazi, Libya, and Ben Hubbard and Steven R. Hurst in Cairo contributed reporting.

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Gaddafi defiant as NATO intensifies Tripoli strikes (Reuters)

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Loud explosions rocked Tripoli early on Wednesday as NATO kept up its heaviest bombing of the Libyan capital since air strikes began in March, but Muammar Gaddafi vowed to fight to the end.

Attacks continued through Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning with warplanes hitting the city several times an hour. The Libyan leader's government said bombs had killed 31 people.

Saying planes were overhead and bombs were falling around him, Gaddafi spoke defiantly after strikes on his Bab al-Aziziya compound.

"We only have one choice: we will stay in our land dead or alive," he said in a fiery audio address on state television.

It later showed images of what it said was a meeting between Gaddafi and tribal leaders on Tuesday.

President Barack Obama said in Washington there was significant progress in the operation and it was "just a matter of time before Gaddafi goes".

At least 31 people were killed in 60 strikes on Tripoli, government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told reporters. His account could not be independently verified.

"How could the world sleep tonight knowing that armies of such evil are willingly and knowingly attacking a peaceful capital with 60 rockets and killing people ... while there is a way out of this. To sit down, talk and negotiate," Ibrahim said.

A British defense official said several operations carried out by fighter aircraft had targeted Gaddafi's secret police headquarters and a military installation on Tripoli's southwestern outskirts.

Gaddafi's troops and the rebels have been deadlocked for weeks, with neither side able to hold territory on a road between Ajdabiyah in the east, which Gaddafi's forces shelled on Monday, and the Gaddafi-held oil town of Brega further west.

DIPLOMATIC MOVES

Rebels control the east of Libya, the western city of Misrata and the range of mountains near the border with Tunisia. They have been unable to advance on the capital against Gaddafi's better-equipped fighters.

Gaddafi's forces pulled back to high ground in the Western Mountains outside Yafran, 130 km (80 miles) southwest of Tripoli. The rebels broke a long government siege of the town on Monday.

But a rebel commander in Zintan, in the same region, said Gaddafi's forces were massing on Tuesday in their biggest numbers in the area since the start of the conflict.

Diplomatic overtures were being made to the rebels by world powers, including Russia and China, despite their misgivings about interference in Libya's affairs.

A Russian special envoy for Africa said in the rebel capital of Benghazi on Tuesday that Gaddafi could no longer represent Libya and that Russia was ready to help in any way possible.

In Beijing, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said an Egypt-based Chinese diplomat had visited Benghazi for talks with the rebel-led National Transitional Council.

The Libya contact group of Western and Arab countries agreed in May to provide millions of dollars in non-military aid to help the rebels keep services and the economy running.

They meet on Thursday in the United Arab Emirates to discuss rebel plans and financing for them.

Al-Saedi Gaddafi, one of Gaddafi's sons, said in comments broadcast on state television that the fighting in Libya was an attempt by Islamists to seize power.

"(Muslim) Brotherhood members, Jihadists and Takfiris (other Islamist fundamentalists) should not dream to return to Libya to take charge of it," he said.

"This is a battle of principles. The leader (Muammar Gaddafi) and the Libyan people have nothing to do with it," he said in remarks by telephone to Jamahiriya television.

(Writing by John Irish; editing by Michael Roddy)

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Blasts in Tripoli as NATO strikes go on

Libya's deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaim shows the damage to the General People's Congress -- Libya's parliament.NEW: At least 10 loud blasts are heard in TripoliNATO spokesman says report is "bogus"Libyan officials say NATO airstrikes have damaged facilities and killed hundreds of civiliansNATO says it is making "significant progress" in protecting Libyan civilians

Misrata, Libya (CNN) -- A series of loud bomb blasts rang out in Tripoli Tuesday morning -- some seeming to come from near Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's compound as NATO's air campaign continued.

At least 10 blasts were heard in Tripoli and dark smoke hung in the air in the area near the compound. It was unclear, however, what exactly the bombs had struck.

Earlier Tuesday morning, Libyan state television showed images of destroyed buildings, damaged studios and satellite vehicles -- saying it was the aftermath of a different NATO airstrike that allegedly hit its facilities in Tripoli.

NATO disputed the account.

"We did not target or hit the Libyan broadcast facilities. What we did target was the military intelligence headquarters in downtown Tripoli," the alliance said. "The story coming from Libyan officials that we targeted and hit the state broadcaster's building is bogus."

The back and forth between Libyan officials and NATO continues a public relations war between the two sides.

Libyan officials have continually charged that NATO airstrikes have damaged civilian facilities and killed hundreds of civilians.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said recently that his forces have made ""significant progress" in its U.N. Security Council mandate to protect Libyan civilians.

This week, the Libyan government said it had evidence that alliance airstrikes were harming civilians.

Officials took journalists to Tajura, a city east of Tripoli, to show them a small crater which held what appeared to be the remains of a rocket.

The reporters were also taken to some nearby homes that thMe government said was damaged by airstrikes.

NATO, reached later by phone, said it had been active in the area hitting military sites but it could not confirm the attacks caused the damage in the residential area.

The group was then taken to a nearby hospital to see Nasib, a comatose baby -- a victim of the airstrikes, the government claimed.

A woman, whom the government said was Nasib's mother, cried over the child's listless body.

Journalists were not allowed to talk to the grieving woman or doctors. But a doctor quietly slipped a note to one of the journalists.

The girl was injured in a car accident, the note said, and not a bomb attack.

CNN's Dan Rivers and Jonathan Wald contributed to this report.

CNN

Fresh series of NATO strikes target Tripoli (AP)

TRIPOLI, Libya – A series of at least 10 NATO strikes hit in and around the Libyan capital early on Friday, targeting military barracks close to Gadhafi's sprawling compound in central Tripoli, a police station and a military base, a government official said. It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties.

The strikes appeared to be the heaviest in Tripoli since South African President Jacob Zuma visited Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi in the capital earlier this week in an apparently unsuccessful effort to find a peaceful resolution to the country's crisis.

Meanwhile, a Libyan woman who claimed she was gang-raped by Gadhafi's troops was deported from Qatar where she had sought refuge, and was now in Benghazi, a U.N. official said Thursday.

Imad al-Obeidi's sudden expulsion cast light again on one of the most widely covered incidents of alleged abuses by Gadhafi's forces as NATO continues its relentless nightly bombing raids on Libyan military and security bases, backing rebels who are trying to unseat the Libyan strongman after a four-decade dictatorship.

In March, al-Obeidi rushed into Tripoli's Rixos Hotel where all foreign correspondents are forced to stay while covering the part of Libya under Gadhafi's control, and shouted out her story of being stopped at a a checkpoint, dragged away and gang-raped by soldiers. As she spoke emotionally and as photographers and reporters recorded her words, government minders, whose job is to escort reporters around the area, jumped her and dragged her away.

She disappeared for several days, then turned up in Tunisia and later Qatar. She was heard from little until Thursday, when she was suddenly expelled from Qatar and ended up in Benghazi, the Libyan rebels' de facto capital. No explanation was forthcoming from Qatar.

Rebel spokesman Jalal el-Gallal said al-Obeidi arrived in Benghazi by plane. "She's welcome to stay, this is her country," el-Gallal told The Associated Press.

The U.N. refugee agency's Sybella Wilkes said al-Obeidi should have been allowed to stay in Qatar, and her deportation runs contrary to international law. Al-Obeidi "is a recognized refugee, and we don't consider there is any good reason for her deportation," Wilkes told the AP.

U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the U.S. was "monitoring the situation" and working to ensure al-Obeidi's safety.

"We're concerned for her safety, given all that's happened to her. And we're going to work to make sure that she's kept safe, first and foremost, and that she finds appropriate asylum," Toner told reporters in Washington on Thursday.

Libyan authorities have alternately labeled al-Obeidi a drunk, a prostitute and a thief.

Al-Obeidi has maintained that she was targeted by Gadhafi's troops because she is from Benghazi, the rebel stronghold. Her rape claim could not be independently verified. The Associated Press identifies only rape victims who volunteer their names.

Human rights violations are one aspect of the rebels' complaints against the Gadhafi regime. This week a report by a U.N. body said it found evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity by Gadhafi's government, and also charged that the rebels have committed abuses.

Four of the early morning blasts Friday shook central Tripoli, targeting an area where military barracks are located, said a government official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with government policy. Those barracks, which had been hit in the past, are close to Gadhafi's sprawling compound.

Six earlier strikes targeted a police station and a military base outside the capital in the areas of Hera and Aziziya, said the official.

The conflict in Libya is nearly four months along, but the situation on the ground appears mostly stalemated. NATO airstrikes have kept the outgunned rebels from being overrun, but the rebels have been unable to mount an effective offensive against Gadhafi's better equipped armed forces.

Gadhafi's regime has been slowly crumbling from within. A significant number of army officers and several Cabinet ministers have defected, and most have expressed support for the opposition, but Gadhafi's hold on power shows little sign of loosening.

NATO warplanes bomb targets in Tripoli, including Gadhafi's sprawling Bab al-Aziziya residential and command compound, on a nightly basis.

Gadhafi has been seen in public rarely and heard even less frequently since a NATO airstrike on his compound killed one of his sons on April 30. Questions are arising about the physical and mental state of the 69-year-old dictator, who has ruled Libya since 1969.

Rebels have turned down initiatives calling for cease-fires, insisting that Gadhafi and his sons must relinquish power and leave the country.

___

Additional reporting by Associated Press writer Hadeel al-Shalchi.

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South African President Zuma flies into Tripoli (Reuters)

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – South African President Jacob Zuma flew into Tripoli Monday to try to broker a peace deal with Muammar Gaddafi, just hours after NATO's secretary-general said the Libyan leader's "reign of terror" was coming to an end.

Zuma was met by a host of dignitaries, not including Gaddafi himself, who has not been seen since May 11 when he was shown by Libyan state television meeting what it said was tribal leaders.

His walk down the red carpet at Tripoli airport was accompanied by a band and children chanting "We want Gaddafi!" in English while waving Libyan flags and pictures of the leader.

Zuma's visit is his second since the conflict began. His previous trip made little progress because Gaddafi has refused to relinquish power while rebel leaders say that is a pre-condition for any truce.

NATO warplanes have been raising the pace of their air strikes on Tripoli, with Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziyah compound in the center of the city being hit repeatedly.

Britain said Sunday it was to add "bunker-busting" bombs to the arsenal its warplanes are using over Libya, a weapon it said would send a message to Gaddafi that it was time to quit.

"Our operation in Libya is achieving its objectives ... We have seriously degraded Gaddafi's ability to kill his own people," NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told a NATO forum in Varna, Bulgaria.

"Gaddafi's reign of terror is coming to an end. He is increasingly isolated at home and abroad. Even those closest to him are departing, defecting or deserting."

Gaddafi denies attacking civilians, saying his forces were obliged to act to contain armed criminal gangs and al Qaeda militants. He says the NATO intervention is an act of colonial aggression aimed at grabbing Libya's plentiful oil reserves.

BUNKER-BUSTERS

Britain and other NATO powers are ratcheting up the military intervention to try to break a deadlock that has seen Gaddafi hold on to power despite a rebel uprising against his four-decade rule and weeks of air strikes.

U.S. Admiral Samuel Locklear, commander of the Joint Operations Command at Naples, declined to comment on whether NATO would put forces on the ground but suggested a small force may be needed to help the rebels once Gaddafi's rule collapses.

He told the Varna forum: "I would anticipate that there might be a need at some point to unfold a small force ... a small number of people there to help them in some way."

Britain said the Enhanced Paveway III bombs, each weighing nearly a tone and capable of penetrating the roof or wall of a reinforced building, had arrived at the Italian air base from where British warplanes fly missions over Libya.

"We are not trying to physically target individuals in Gaddafi's inner circle on whom he relies, but we are certainly sending them increasingly loud messages," British Defense Secretary Liam Fox said Sunday in a statement.

The military alliance says it is acting under a mandate from the United Nations to protect civilians from attack by security forces trying to put down the rebellion against Gaddafi.

But the more aggressive tactics risk causing divisions within the fragile alliance backing the intervention, and could also lead to NATO being dragged closer toward putting its troops on Libyan soil, something it is anxious to avoid.

Further deepening their involvement, Britain and France have said they will deploy attack helicopters over Libya to better pick out pro-Gaddafi forces. Helicopters are more vulnerable to attack from the ground than high-flying warplanes.

Sunday Al Jazeera television station broadcast video footage of what it said were foreign forces, possibly British, on the ground near the rebel-held city of Misrata.

There were a number of armed men, some wearing sunglasses and keffiyahs, or traditional Arab headscarves, who moved off when they realized they were being watched, the footage showed.

Gaddafi's foreign minister held talks in Tunisia Saturday with Lord David Trefgarne, a former British government minister, according to a former British ambassador to Libya who took part in the discussions.

The ex-ambassador refused to disclose what they talked about and Britain's government said neither it not any intermediaries were talking to officials loyal to Gaddafi.

ROCKETS FIRED

Rebels control the east of Libya around the city of Benghazi, Libya's third-biggest city Misrata, and a mountain range stretching from the town of Zintan, 150 km (95 miles) south of Tripoli, toward the border with Tunisia.

Helped by NATO air support, the rebels have been able to push back attacks by pro-Gaddafi forces but in many places they are still under bombardment and cut off from supplies.

Libyan state television reported that NATO air strikes killed 11 people in Zlitan Monday, the next town westwards on the coast road toward Tripoli from Misrata.

Libya's state news agency Jana also reported that NATO airstrikes hit the Tiji area, near the Western Mountain town of Nalut, overnight, causing "human and material losses."

Libyan officials took journalists Sunday to a school in Tripoli near the part of Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziyah compound that had been hit by NATO planes during air strikes Saturday.

There was little evidence of damage, but head teacher Hamid Miftar said the nearby blast had broken one or two windows and terrified the children as they sat for the first day of exams.

"Imagine the scene, with children this age in a school of this capacity. They all tried to run out at once," he said. "These are civilians."

As reporters toured classrooms, teachers led the schoolchildren in chants of "Allah, Muammar, Libya together!."

(Additional reporting by Stefano Ambrogi in London, Joseph Logan in Tripoli, Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers and Matt Robinson in Zintan; Writing by Christian Lowe and Jan Harvey; Editing by Alison Williams)

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Libya: NATO aircraft pound Tripoli

NEW: Explosions heard near Gadhafi compoundA compound for pro-Gadhafi volunteers is targetedIt is one of the heaviest NATO attacks on Tripoli so farArrest warrants are issued for Gadhafi

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Six thunderous explosions rocked the center of Tripoli late Tuesday. A hotel for international journalists located within 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's compound shook during the attacks.

The attacks capped a day in which 19 people died and 150 were wounded after NATO aircraft launched a barrage of strikes on the Libyan capital in what a government official called the heaviest onslaught since the aerial strikes began.

At least 18 rockets struck Tripoli while a U.S envoy in the eastern rebel-held city of Benghazi was courting members of the transitional government.

Reporters felt and heard the most recent explosions from the hotel where they are staying. Outbursts of gunfire, as well as ambulance sirens, could be heard in the streets.

Jeffery Feltman, the U.S assistant secretary of state for near Eastern affairs, told reporters in Benghazi that he had invited the National Transitional Council to open a representative office in Washington -- and that the council has accepted.

Feltman added that he had come to reiterate a message from President Barack Obama that "Gadhafi has lost legitimacy to rule. He cannot regain control of Libya. And he must step down immediately."

After the airstrikes Tuesday morning, smoke was seen rising from the area near Gadhafi's Bab-al-Azizia compound.

Moussa Ibrahim, a Libyan government spokesman, said the attack targeted a guard compound for pro-Gadhafi military volunteers that had been emptied in anticipation of the attack. He called the attack an escalation by NATO.

A NATO statement said the attack had targeted a "regime vehicle storage facility" adjacent to the Bab-al-Azizia compound. The facility resupplies government forces that have been attacking Libyan civilians, according to the NATO statement.

Gadhafi's forces "still represent a threat to civilians and we will continue to strike targets that carry out this violence," said Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard of Canada, who commands the Libya operation.

Journalists later visited a hospital where they said they saw the bodies of three men, at least two covered in dust, and a number of wounded people.

Arrest warrants have been issued by the International Criminal Court for Gadhafi and two relatives, linking them to "widespread and systematic" attacks on civilians as they struggle to retain power in Libya.

The court's chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, has said that the court in The Hague will investigate allegations of institutionalized rape in the war-torn country.

A Libyan government official told CNN that Gadhafi's government welcomes the court's investigation but said that prosecutors "have not been to Libya to do an investigation."

CNN's Nima Elbagir, Amir Ahmed, Nic Robertson and Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report.

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Demonstrators cheer Gadhafi in Tripoli

State television reports counter-revolutionary demonstrations in the rebel capital BenghaziCNN journalists in Benghazi see no evidence of thatHundreds of Libyans honk horns and dance in the streets of TripoliMoammar Gadhafi has been fighting to keep control of his country

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Crowds of Libyans took to the streets of Tripoli in the early hours of Thursday, honking horns and dancing in the streets in support of the country's leader Moammar Gadhafi.

More than 100 people outside the headquarters of state television chanted "God, Moammar and Libya only" and other pro-Gadhafi and anti-rebel slogans.

The demonstrations were apparently a response to state TV reports that parts of the rebel capital Benghazi were "rejecting the colonialists and their followers," as the government describes NATO and the rebels.

But CNN journalists in Benghazi saw no indications of counter-revolutionary uprisings or protests there. And the National Transitional Council denied the government's claims that pro-Gadhafi forces had seized control of the city.

A group of journalists, including a CNN team, were taken by government minders to see the celebrations in Tripoli.

Among the predominantly young male crowds, there were a number of families -- including fathers carrying children on their shoulders.

One woman, who brought her 10 year-old-daughter, carried a portrait of the Libyan leader and said they were out celebrating their country being united again.

Many then drove off towards Tripoli's Green Square singing and honking their horns, waving Libya's green flag and portraits of Gadhafi.

But residents in Benghazi said they had not seen or heard of pro-Gadhafi rallies there.

Two months ago, Gadhafi loyalists in Tripoli erupted in similar cheer when state media incorrectly reported that Tobruk and Benghazi had falled to government troops.

Gadhafi has been fighting to keep control of his country in the face of an uprising that has led to a number of key cities falling into rebel hands.

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court this week requested a warrant for Gadhafi's arrest on charges of crimes against humanity.

CNN's Ben Wedeman contributed to this report.

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Tripoli burials for alleged NATO victims

Libyan government says 11 imams were killed in the strike FridayState television widely alerts people to the funerals held SaturdayNATO says it targeted a command and control structure of the Gadhafi regime

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- A few hundred people gathered at a Tripoli cemetery Saturday to bury the alleged victims of a NATO airstrike in al-Brega a day earlier.

Eleven imams were killed Friday when the house they were staying in was struck, the Libyan government said. The imams were on a peace mission to the eastern towns of Benghazi and Ajdabiya when the strike occurred, the government said.

Among those present at the funerals Saturday was a 25-year-old sheikh who said he was a survivor of the airstrike.

He told CNN the guest house where he and 15 other imams were staying was in a residential area.

The first missile struck about 1 a.m., killing one imam, the sheikh said, who was not named for security purposes.

Two more missiles struck while rescuers were inside the house, the sheikh said, who noted that the emergency workers were among the casualties in the "flattened" residence.

The sheikh and his colleagues were asked to go to al-Brega from Sirt to do Quran readings, hold sermons and Friday prayers, and go live on state television from the port, he said. The group was asked to travel to al-Brega by the Religious Endowments Ministry to show that the city is not controlled by rebels and demonstrate that "normal" life prevails there, the sheikh said.

The young man said he is in "shock" over the loss of fellow Quran teachers who he had studied with and known for years.

He also marveled at how he was able to survive the strike, describing the crater as being about five meters deep.

NATO's military office confirmed that NATO conducted an airstrike in al-Brega on Friday but said the target was clearly identified as a command and control structure, which was being used by the Gadhafi regime to coordinate attacks against the civilian population.

"We are aware of allegations of civilian casualties in connection to this strike, and although we cannot independently confirm the validity of the claim, we regret any loss of life by innocent civilians when they occur," NATO said in a statement.

Ahmed Bani, a rebel military spokesman, denied that civilian casualties were caused by NATO strikes.

All civilians have left the al-Brega area, Bani said. The remaining population are pro-Gadhafi forces and have taken up positions in civilian neighborhoods, hiding equipment and ammunition, he said.

At the funerals Saturday, CNN counted nine coffins which the government said contained the bodies of the imams.

The date and time for the funerals was continuously announced on state TV and government text messages were sent out to cell phones alerting people. Yet the turnout was not as high as many had expected, with only a few hundred there -- many of them security forces who shot in the air with their AK-47s in a show of anger and grief during the burials.

The bodies, wrapped in green shrouds with flowers on their chests, were driven in by ambulances and then were carried by the crowds that had gathered.

Angry crowds chanted anti-NATO country slogans like "down, down Sarkozy," referring to the French president, as NATO jets flew overhead, infuriating the crowds more.

Libyan government officials took journalists to a Tripoli mosque Friday where a news conference was held by government spokesman Musa Ibrahim and a number of officials including two imams.

Ibrahim described the strike as "barbaric" and a "heinous crime."

One of the imams at the press conference called on Muslims to avenge the alleged killings.

"We will call upon the Muslims all around the world, to take revenge for our brothers who died today. Today, for every man who died we should take down 1,000 men from France, Britain, America and Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates," Sheikh Nur-aldin al-Mijrab said.

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Gadhafi offers truce as NATO strikes in Tripoli

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi called for a cease-fire and negotiations with NATO powers in a live speech on state TV early Saturday, just as NATO bombs struck a government complex in the Libyan capital.

In this photo made on a government-organized tour, an official building is damaged after an airstrike early Saturday in Tripoli, Libya.

By Darko Bandic, AP

In this photo made on a government-organized tour, an official building is damaged after an airstrike early Saturday in Tripoli, Libya.

In Brussels, a NATO official said the alliance needed "to see not words but actions," and that NATO would keep up the pressure until the U.N. Security Council mandate on Libya is fulfilled.

The targeted compound included the state television building and the Libyans alleged the strikes were meant to kill Gadhafi. However, the TV building was not damaged and Gadhafi spoke from an undisclosed location.

In his rambling pre-dawn speech which lasted for more than an hour, Gadhafi appeared both subdued and defiant, repeatedly pausing as he flipped through handwritten notes.

"The door to peace is open," Gadhafi said, sitting behind a desk. "You are the aggressors. We will negotiate with you. Come, France, Italy, U.K., America, come, we will negotiate with you. Why are you attacking us?"

He said Libyans have the right to choose their own political system, but not under the threat of NATO bombings.

Rebel leaders have said they will only lay down their arms and begin talks on Libya's future after Gadhafi and his sons, some of whom hold powerful positions in the country, step aside. Gadhafi has repeatedly refused to resign.

"Why are you killing our children? Why are you destroying our infrastructure," Gadhafi said, while denying that his forces had killed Libyan civilians. Even as he called for a cease-fire, he appeared to dismiss the possibility of one, saying his enemies were al-Qaida operatives who did not understand what a truce meant.

He promised the young rebels fighting his regime that if they gave up their guns, he would give them cars and money, saying they were children "tricked" by NATO promises.

The U.N. official however noted that just hours before Gadhafi's talk of a truce, he had shelled Misrata and tried to mine the port. The city of 300,000 is the main rebel stronghold in western Libya and has been under siege for two months.

"The regime has announced cease-fires several times before and continued attacking cities and civilians," said the official who could not be named under standing regulations. "All this has to stop, and it has to stop now," the official said, adding that a ceasefire had to be "credible and verifiable."

Earlier this month, NATO's foreign ministers said the alliance will continue operations until all attacks and threats against civilians have ceased, until all of Gadhafi's forces have returned to bases, and until there is full humanitarian access.

The port is Misrata's only lifeline. On Friday, NATO intercepted boats laying anti-ship mines in the nearby waters.

The regime signaled Friday that it is trying to block access to Misrata by sea.

Moussa Ibrahim, the Libyan government spokesman, said he was unaware of the attempted mine-laying. However, he said the government is trying to prevent weapons shipments from reaching the rebels by sea. Asked whether aid vessels would also be blocked, he said any aid shipments must be coordinated with the authorities and should preferably come overland.

Gadhafi's forces have repeatedly shelled the port area and his ground troops are deployed on the outskirts of Misrata, after having been driven out of the downtown area by the rebels last week.

On Saturday, heavy fighting continued in the southern part of the city near the airport and frequent large booms could be heard in downtown from that part of town.

Hassan al-Bari, 21, who lay in the hospital screaming from pain from a three inch gash on his cheeks, said Gadhafi's forces were just outside the airport. He was wounded in a mortar strike there.

The hospital contained two dead and four injured from fighting.

With the rebels holding much of eastern Libya, Gadhafi needs to consolidate his hold over the western half, including Misrata and a mountainous region on the border with Tunisia.

On Friday, fighting between rebels and regime loyalists over a key border crossing spilled over into Tunisia, drawing a sharp rebuke by Tunisian authorities. The Foreign Ministry summoned Libya's ambassador to convey its "most vigorous protests" for the "serious violations" at the Dhuheiba border area Thursday and Friday, a ministry statement said.

The crossing is a strategic lifeline for Libya's western Nafusa mountain area where members of the ethnic Berber minority ? who have complained of systematic discrimination by the regime ? have been fighting the Gadhafi's forces for several weeks.

The Tunisian news agency, citing military officials, said dozens of Libyan troops and rebel fighters were killed in the two-day battle over the Dhuheiba crossing which ended with rebels regaining control Friday, after Libyan forces held it for a day.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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