Libyan fighters drive leading edge nearer to Tripoli

Libyan fighters said they were under 20 miles (30 kilometers) from Col. Gadhafi's key iron grip of Tripoli on Sunday, a day after resistance rebels initiated their first hit on the capital itself.

Rebels said a 600-strong fighter force that get started from Zawiya has attained the remote areas of the village of Jedaim and was coming under profound fire from government forces on the eastern side of the town.

Murad Dabdoub, a rebel who came back to Zawiya from the front, told The Associated Press that Gadhafi's loyal forces were beating rebel positions with rockets, mortars and anti-aircraft fire.

The fighters' arrival at Jedaim was also verified by Abdul-Bari Gilan, a doctor in Zawiya. He told the AP that he had treated a rebel who was injured in the fighting at Jedaim.

NATO said the changing encounter lines and focus on fighting in towns and villages are building it harder to recognize and engage objectives for airstrikes.

"It's much difficult to do in a town area," he said. "This needs very special and deep intelligence to get without jeopardizing the national population."

An AP reporter in Tripoli, in the mean time, said the city was mostly quiet on Sunday after a night of gunfire and blasts.

Libyan rebels said Saturday that they had initiated their first assault on Tripoli in bringing together with NATO and gun-battles and mortar rounds rocked the city. NATO aircraft also made grave bombing runs after nightfall, with noisy blasts booming throughout the city.

Libyan government TV on Saturday televised what come out to be a live audio message by Gadhafi in which he criticized the fighters as conspirators and "rats" those were destroying Libya apart and said they were being persuaded from city to city — a mirror image of actuality.

"Libyans desired to enjoy a peaceful Ramadan," he said. "In its place they have been made into refugees. What are we? Palestinians?" He entitled on Libyans to march by the millions on cities across the nation to calmly liberate them.

Moussa Ibrahim regime spokesman showed on Libyan television to reject there was an rebellion in Tripoli.

"Certain there were some armed insurgents who ran away into some neighborhoods and there were some fighting, but we dealt with it within a half hour and it is now peaceful," he said.

The alleges from both sides could not constantly be independently confirmed.

Tripoli has been Gadhafi's stronghold since the Libyan civil war started some six months before, but it is not obvious whether the besieged leader was still there.

The seize of Tripoli would almost surely herald the end of Gadhafi's long rule, in excess of 40 years after the rebel leader detained power in a military coup that collapsed the kingdom of the huge North African nation.

In the mean time, Gadhafi's son and one-time heir evident Seif al-Islam delivered a same rebellious message on Saturday when he speeches supporters. He told them: "We are not yielding; it is impossible to raise the white flag."

"Surrender or the white flag are discarded because this is not the choice of Moammar Gadhafi or Seif al-Islam, it is the choice of the Libyan nation," he said.