Rebels fighting to encircle Muammar Gaddafi in Tripoli faced stiff resistance yesterday, coming under rocket attack south of the capital as France said it has made indirect contact with Libya’s regime.
The clashes came around Gualish, which the rebels overran four days ago as they launched a Nato-backed offensive aimed at pushing the front line closer to the capital.
“There is a battle in the mountain of Zarat, near Kikla (about 15 kilometres,) north of Gualish,” said Wael Brashen who commands a small rebel unit in the area.
“Since 2 a.m., Gaddafi’s forces have been striking intermittently with Grad rockets and 106-calibre anti-tank canons,” he said, adding the shelling also targeted a road linking Kikla to Al-Assabaa, 17 kilometres from Gualish, from where the rebels had vowed to march to Gharyan, the last major city on the road to Tripoli. Rebels broke a weeks-long stalemate in the Nafusa mountains last week, marching to the plains of Gualish, and also launching a deadly offensive on Zliten on the coast yesterday.
On the diplomatic front, France said it has made indirect contact with Colonel Gaddafi’s regime, but denied reports it has begun direct negotiations with Tripoli.
Paris is a leading member of the Nato-led international coalition bombing Col Gaddafi’s forces and a cheerleader for the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) battling to overthrow him.
“France has always said it wants a political solution. There are no direct negotiations between France and Gaddafi’s regime, but we pass it messages in liaison with the NTC and our allies,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said.
“These messages are simple and without ambiguity: any political solution must begin with Gaddafi’s withdrawal from power and abandonment of any political role.”
France was reacting after Col Gaddafi’s son Seif Al-Islam was quoted in an Algerian daily boasting that Tripoli was negotiating a way out of the conflict with Paris, not with the rebels.
Seif Al-Islam had also cited intelligence reports indicating that France is sending airborne troops to western Libya to fight alongside the rebels and attack Tripoli.
“We are in fact holding real negotiations with France and not with the rebels,” he told the daily El Khabar, adding that Tripoli had received a “clear message” through an envoy who met the French president.
They also accused Col Gaddafi’s forces of using cluster bombs when four of their men were killed and 22 wounded overnight in Zliten, some 60 kilometres from Misurata, Libya’s third city and the insurgency’s main western stronghold.
Nato’s latest operational update said its warplanes on Sunday hit three multiple rocket launchers in the Zliten area and another three in Misurata, where it also hit eight artillery pieces, eight military vehicles and a tank.
For almost four months, Nato has carried out air raids on Col Gaddafi’s troops and military sites in a UN-backed bid launched to halt a crackdown on civilians amid popular protests.
Yesterday, the United States warned its partners in the military alliance to assume their responsibilities in the Libyan campaign and boost their defence budgets.
“The reality in Libya is that within the next 90 days a lot of these other countries could be exhausted in terms of their capabilities, so the US is going to be looked at to help fill the gap,” US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said.