Libya rebels on outskirts of Gaddafi's hometown

Tripoli, Aug 29: Libyan rebels prepared today (Aug 29) to launch an assault to capture strongman Muammar Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte and win full control of Libya, while scrambling to get war-ravaged Tripoli back on its feet.

Sirte is the elusive Gaddafi's last bastion after rebels smashed his forces in Tripoli and seized his Bab al-Aziziya headquarters.

Libyan rebel chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil warned in Doha today that Gaddafi still posed a danger inside and outside of Libya and urged no let-up in international action against the strongman.

"Gaddafi's defiance of the coalition forces still poses a danger, not only for Libya but for the world. That is why we are calling for the coalition to continue its support," Abdel Jalil, leader of the rebels'' National Transitional Council (NTC), said at a meeting of chiefs of staff of countries militarily involved in Libya, including Qatar.

Fierce fighting also raged in the west of Libya as rebels trying to wrest control of the region from Gaddafi's forces said they had fallen into an ambush in a town southwest of Zuwarah.

Rebel forces moved to within 30 kilometres of Sirte from the west and captured Bin Jawad 100 kilometres to the east, the rebel commander in Misrata, Mohammed al-Fortiya, told AFP.

"We took Bin Jawad today" on the eastern front, and "the thwar (rebel fighters) from Misrata are 30 kilometres from Sirte" in the west, Fortiya said.

Rebels pushing west from the oil hub of Ras Lanuf had been stuck for four days outside Bin Jawad, a key town on the coast road of the Gulf of Sirte, as Gaddafi''s forces kept up a defiant resistance.

AFP