Libyan troops shell western rebel positions (Reuters)

MISRATA/KIKLA, Libya (Reuters) – Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's forces shelled rebel positions in the Western Mountains on Wednesday, insurgents said, after rebels edged closer to the capital on three fronts.

A rebel spokesman, called Kalefa, in the town of Nalut said there were no casualties from the shelling.

"Gaddafi's forces bombarded Nalut ... Over 20 Grad rockets landed in the town. They bombarded from their positions ... around 20 km (12 miles) east of Nalut," he said, adding that they had also shelled the Wazin-Dehiba Tunisia border crossing.

The rebels have made advances in key areas in recent days but they have a way to go if they are to successfully march on Gaddafi's well-defended territory.

Fighting was subdued on Wednesday as rebels held positions toward Zlitan, east of Tripoli, and on other fronts.

NATO war planes bombed Tripoli on Tuesday night, causing loud explosions that filled the sky with plumes of smoke, but there were no further reports of bombing on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the rebels tried to advance in the east, setting their sights on the oil town of Brega to extend their control over the region, epicenter of the four-month rebellion against Gaddafi's four-decade rule.

In a sign that Gaddafi's forces may be getting stretched, the rebels seized the town of Kikla, 150 km (90 miles) southwest of Tripoli. They also pushed several kilometers west of their Misrata stronghold to the outskirts of government-held Zlitan.

A Reuters correspondent with the rebels said there were no further advances in the region on Wednesday.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen will meet British Prime Minister David Cameron in London to discuss the nearly three-month-old operation, which has so far failed to oust Gaddafi or enable the rebels to capture Tripoli.

NATO defense chiefs met in Belgrade to discuss the mission on Tuesday. Ties are straining in the alliance, with some reluctant to commit additional resources needed to sustain the bombing mission in the coming months.

A senior NATO commander appeared to raise questions about the alliance's ability to handle a long-term intervention.

"We are conducting this operation with all the means we have ... If the operation were to last long, of course, the resource issue will become critical," General Stephane Abrial said.

Saad Djebbar, a former legal adviser to the Libyan government, told Reuters Gaddafi would continue to play for time and seek to demoralize and splinter the coalition.

"Gaddafi's mentality is that as long as my enemies haven't triumphed, I haven't lost," he said.

"The U.S. stance, that the major outside role should be played by the Europeans and Arabs, sends the wrong signal. Gaddafi will be very encouraged by it. His line is 'We are steadfast'. We can wait it out.'"

He said Gaddafi would be active in supplying Tripoli with food and fuel during Ramadan in August, to ward off revolution.

"The concerns being raised in the British parliament and the U.S. Congress, including questions like 'why are we spending so much?', will be of comfort to him."

NATO spokesman Major General Nick Pope said air strikes had destroyed three ammunition bunkers in Waddan and that NATO ships were patrolling the Libyan cost to enforce the arms embargo.

AUSTRIA OVERTURE TO REBELS

Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger will on Sunday visit the rebels in Benghazi to offer "concrete support," his office said, the latest in a string of such visitors.

Austria's oil and gas firm OMV used to get 10 percent of its oil, about 33,000 barrels per day, from Libya but says it has not had contact from either side since the conflict.

The rebel push to Kikla followed weeks of deadlock between the rag-tag rebel army and government forces, though air strikes by NATO have taken their toll on Gaddafi's better-equipped troops.

The rebels said a NATO leaflet warning of helicopter strikes had prevented them from pushing toward the town of Zlitan on Tuesday, and had prompted some rebels to retreat from their newly-captured positions about 10 km (6 miles) outside the city toward their base in Misrata, east of Tripoli.

A NATO official said the alliance dropped the leaflets west of Misrata, and closer to Zlitan.

A Reuters correspondent in Misrata said there were no further advances toward Zlitan on Wednesday.

A rebel leader in the Mediterranean port city said the oil refinery there was still out of action after Gaddafi's forces shelled it on Monday, but petrol stations were working.

"The oil refinery ... will resume again soon," said Khalifa Zuwawi, chairman of the transitional council in Misrata.

Even without the threat of NATO attack, the rebels said they would not attack Zlitan, citing tribal sensitivities. Instead they would wait for the local inhabitants to rise up.

A NATO official said warplanes had hit an ammunition store at Waddan, not far from Al Jufrah, after Libyan television said Al Jufrah, in central Libya, had been bombed for a second day.

(Additional reporting by Nick Carey in Tripoli, William Mcclean in London, Sylvia Westall in Vienna, Maria Golovnina in Benghazi, Sami Aboudi in Cairo, Souhail Karam in Rabat and Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algers; writing by Tim Cocks and John Irish; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

Yahoo! News

Gadhafi forces shell port

MISRATA, Libya (AP) — A medical official says Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi's forces have bombarded an area near the port of Misrata while an international aid ship sent to evacuate fleeing migrant workers was docked.

Internally displaced Libyan children play inside a compound of a refugee camp in the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi on Tuesday.

Mahdi Bensasi of the Libyan Red Crescent says Wednesday's strike killed four migrants ? a women, a man and two children who were in a migrant camp nearby.

The ferry, chartered by the International Organization for Migration to evacuate nearly 1,000 migrant workers, had spent three nights outside Misrata waiting to come in. Last week, Gadhafi's forces were caught mining the harbor entrance. Two other rocket attacks struck the port earlier this week.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe also said it's not the aim of the international bombing campaign in Libya to kill Gadhafi. He spoke after a NATO air strike over the weekend destroyed most of Gadhafi's family compound, prompting Libyan accusations that the alliance is trying to assassinate Gadhafi.

Libyan officials said Gadhafi was in the targeted building and survived unharmed, while one of his sons and three grandchildren were killed. The Libyan leader has not made a public appearance since then, but CIA director Leon Panetta told NBC on Tuesday that he believes Gadhafi is still alive.

The international community stepped into the fighting in Libya in mid-March, a month after Gadhafi tried to crush an uprising against him. The rebels now control much of the east, while Gadhafi holds most of the west of the country.

NATO bombing raids have largely blocked Gadhafi's troops from advancing eastward, and the heaviest battles are being fought in the west where rebels are holding positions in the coastal city of Misrata and in the Nafusa mountain range on the border.

Regime loyalists fired about 40 Grad rockets at the town of Zintan in the mountainous region home to Libya's ethnic Berber community, late Tuesday and early Wednesday, said Khaled Aburaqiqa, a spokesman for the community.

No one was hurt by the shelling, but six people from Zintan were killed in fighting on Monday and Tuesday, he said, adding that nearly 100 people have been killed in Zintan, a town of about 45,000, since it rose up against Gadhafi at the start of the revolt.

Supplies reach Zintan only intermittently, depending on when rebel fighters are able to push Gadhafi's forces back long enough to allow shipments to come in, Aburaqiqa said. So far, however, people are not going hungry and are surviving on stables, but there is a shortage of medical supplies, including surgical equipment.

Last month, rebel fighters in the area scored a breakthrough when they managed to take control of the Dhuheiba crossing between Libya and Tunisia. The crossing serves as a key supply route, but the road from the crossing to the Nafusa mountain area has repeatedly been shelled by Gadhafi's forces, including on Wednesday, the spokesman said.

In the other main area of resistance in western Libya, the port city of Misrata, an aid ship was guided into the harbor by a tug boat Wednesday to avoid hitting possible sea mines.

The Red Star One had waited off Misrata for several days, for fear of mines, said Jumbe Omari Jumbe, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration. The ship is meant to deliver basic supplies and evacuate some 1,000 migrants and wounded civilians from the city. Two seriously ill civilians died earlier this week while IOM was waiting for permission from NATO and Libyan authorities to dock the ship in Misrata, Jumbe said.

Misrata has been under siege by land for more than two months, and Libya's deputy foreign minister, Khaled Kaim, confirmed late Tuesday the regime is trying to cut off its access to the sea as well ? its final lifeline.

"There was an announcement from the Libyan government, the Ministry of Transportation, that Misrata port is closed and that any foreign ship or vessel would be targeted by the Libyan armed forces," Kaim said when asked about attempts by the regime on Friday to lay anti-ship mines along the access route to Misrata's port.

Two of the mines were destroyed, but a third floated away, and NATO vessels have been searching for it. The attempted mining has disrupted the delivery of desperately needed supplies to Misrata, a city of 300,000.

The fighting in Libya has largely been locked in a stalemate. NATO commanders have said they have made good progress in eroding the Gadhafi's military capabilities, but leading French and Italian politicians said this week that the international involvement should not be open-ended.

Juppe, the French foreign minister, said military intervention must end as quickly as possible. The international mission's goal "is not to kill Gadhafi, that is clear, our goal is to take away his means of continuing his repression against the civilian population."

Juppe spoke on France 24 TV Wednesday on the eve of an international conference in Rome for countries involved in the Libya campaign, aimed in part at drumming up financial support for the rebels.

On Tuesday, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Italy would seek an end date for NATO's Libya operations, as Premier Silvio Berlusconi sought to placate a key government partner opposed to Italian participation in bombing missions.

Government officials quickly offered reassurances that Italy was fully committed to its role in the NATO operation. They suggested Frattini's comments reflected a reality that allies eventually need to discuss mission sustainability.

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