Libya Forces Fight Rebels Advancing Toward Capital

Source: Associated Press

By Maggie Michael And Paul Schemm, Associated Press – 2 hrs 14 mins ago

BIN JAWWAD, Libya – Libyan helicopter gunships fired on a rebel force advancing west toward the capital along the Mediterranean coastline Sunday and forces loyal to leader Moammar Gadhafi fought intense ground battles with the rival fighters.

The opposition force pushed out of the rebel-held eastern half of Libya late last week for the first time and has been cutting a path west toward Tripoli. On the way, they secured control of two important oil ports at Brega and Ras Lanouf and by Sunday, the rebels were advancing farther west when they were hit by the helicopter fire and confrontations with ground forces.

The uprising against Gadhafi, which began just days after President Hosni Mubarak was ousted by protesters in neighboring Egypt, has been sliding rapidly toward civil war, making it the bloodiest episode in the Middle East's wave of unrest.

The seesawing battles for towns and oil installations along the coastline signaled that Libya's fighting could be prolonged, compared with the ousting of Mubarak after just 18 days. The protesters-turned-rebels — backed by mutinous army units and armed with weaponry seized from storehouses — are going on the offensive to try to topple Gadhafi's 41-year-old regime. At the same time, pro-Gadhafi forces have conducted counteroffensives to try to retake the oil port of Brega and the rebel-held city of Zawiya west of Tripoli — where bloody street battles were reported over the weekend.

In Sunday's fighting, AP reporters on the scene said government airstrikes hit the town of Ras Lanouf, and ground troops loyal to Gadhafi retook the town of Bin Jawwad, about 110 miles (160 kilometers) east of Gadhafi's hometown and stronghold of Sirte, which could prove to be a decisive battleground.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/af_libya