Libyan rebels launch attack on frontier town

Rebels have launched an assault on the town of Al-Ghazaya near the Tunisia border, sources said today, after Muammar Gaddafi said he is ready to "sacrifice" to ensure victory in Libya's civil war.

The assault, part of a pre-Ramadan offensive by the rebels aimed at marching on Tripoli and toppling Gaddafi, began yesterday, a military source told an AFP correspondent in Zintan, in the Nalut region of western Libya.

Gaddafi's forces hold Ghazaya and use it as a base to bombard the rebel-held town of Nalut and rebels in the frontier region. Ghazaya lies about 12 kilometres (nine miles) from the Tunisian border.

For the past few days, Gaddafi forces have intensified their firing of Grad rockets against the rebels in Nalut, some 230 kilometres (140 miles) west of the Libyan capital, Tripoli.

The mountainous Nafusa region has seen some of the fiercest fighting between loyalist troops and rebel forces, who are using the Nafusa mountains as a springboard for their advance on Tripoli.

The two sides have fought their way into a stalemate five months after the start of a popular uprising that quickly turned into a civil war.

The Libyan leader is in control of much of the west and his Tripoli stronghold, while the opposition holds the east from their bastion in Benghazi.