Revolutionaries get to Tripoli.

A close source, who is moving towards tripoli, reports.

Over 700 Revolutionaries have reached Tripoli, and Gadaffi has around 35% of Tripoli under his control says the source, who wishes to remain anonymous. May Allah (Swt) be with them.

In other news, alot of Revolutionaries already stationed in Tripoli are joining with the ones that have just arrived.

Gadaffi must make a choice; continue to fight or escape

(Reuters) – The battle to control Libya has entered its final phase when Muammar Gaddafi must make a choice: to seek a negotiated exit or to defend his capital to the last bullet.

Rebels with support from NATO warplanes have, over the past 48 hours, taken key towns around Gaddafi’s stronghold in Tripoli in a dramatic series of advances which cut the city off from supplies of fuel and food.

Rebel offensives have, in the past, turned into headlong retreats. But if they hold their ground, the end of Gaddafi’s 41-year rule will be closer than at any time since the conflict began six months ago.

A U.S. official said that for the first time in the conflict, government forces on Sunday fired a Scud missile — an act that was pointless from a military point of view but signalled the desperation of pro-Gaddafi forces.

“The Libyan regime may or may not collapse forthwith but it now looks like it will happen sooner or later,” said Daniel Korski, a fellow at the European Council for Foreign Relations.

He added: “The manner of its collapse, however, and the method of the rebel takeover will be just as important as the conduct of the war.”

Flushed by their success in getting so close to Tripoli, some rank-and-file rebels on Monday spoke of attacking the capital next. But analysts said that will not be the favoured option for rebel commanders.

Rebels enter Zawiya, 55KM west of Tripoli

A revolutionary force of about 200 fighters has reached a bridge on the southwestern outskirts of the city, which is located around 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Tripoli. Some revolutionaries pushed farther into the city center tonight.

An AP reporter traveling with the revolutionaries saw hundreds of resident rush into the streets, greeting the freedom fighters with chants of “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is great.”

“We took over the centre of Zawiya about an hour ago. There were mercenaries there. The fighting lasted about 30 minutes and then they ran away,” said a revolutionary fighter named Ahmed.

Gaddafi’s forces then counterattacked, and heavy shelling and gunfire could be heard as revolutionaries and Gaddafi troops battled.

Zawiyah is an important strategic city because it lies along the main supply line for Gaddafi’s stronghold of Tripoli. If the revolutionaries capture Zawiyah, the path to Tripoli should be clear.

In other fighting on two fronts well to the east of Tripoli, at Brega and near Misrata, at least 21 revolutionaries and six soldiers were killed over the past two days, with some 50 revolutionaries wounded. Neither Revolutionaries nor Pro-Gadaffi fighters claimed major advances in the past 24 hours.

Revolutionaries claim capture of gateway to Tripoli

Revolutionaries claimed to have captured a key mountain town that is a strategic gateway on the road to Tripoli, driving out Gaddafi forces today in an intensified western offensive aiming to push toward Tripoli.

The town of Gharyan lies at the northern end of the Nafusa Mountains, and Gaddafi’s hold on the town had been a sticking point for revolutionaries who have taken control of most of the range. The town lies on the main road leading directly from Nafusa to Tripoli, 50 miles (80 kilometers) to the north on the Mediterranean coast.

Revolutionaries have been trying for weeks to take Gharyan, and NATO airstrikes have hit Gaddafi’s forces several times in the area.

Gomma Ibrahim, a spokesman for the Libyan revolutionaries in the Nafusa area, said revolutionary fighters clashed for about four hours with the remains of regime forces in the town — mostly young fighters and mercenaries — who then withdrew. The claims could not immediately be confirmed independently.

The capture solidifies the revolutionaries’ flank as they push ahead with a new offensive launched from further west in the Nafusa range, pushing down into the coastal plain where Gadaffi’s forces have been concentrated. The revolutionaries are hoping to take several cities along the coast before moving on to Tripoli.

Revolutionary commander Fathi el-Ayeb said his fighters were 10 miles (15 kilometers) away from Gaddafi-held Zawiya, a key target in the offensive. He said the revolutionaries’ scouts who returned from Zawiya claim the local residents there were waiting for the revolutionaries to reach the city’s outskirts to join their fight against Gaddafi.

“They are waiting for the revolutionaries to come and they will join them,” said el-Ayeb.

Dozens of Libyan families have been taking advantage of the fighting to flee from Tripoli and head into the Nafusa Mountains.

The families were making their way through desert back roads that appeared to be less guarded amid the fighting between revolutionaries and Gaddafi’s forces near Bir Ghanam, 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of Tripoli.

The revolutionaries said they registered 55 families that fled Tripoli in the past three days for the Nafusa mountains. Many were originally from the west but had escaped to Tripoli when the fighting broke out in the mountains months ago.

One of those on the road, Sassi Ahmed, a 47-year-old social studies teacher, said he left Tripoli with his wife and six children because the situation in the capital was “very dangerous and frightening,” with no gas or electricity.

Ahmed told The Associated Press the family piled up their belongings onto their car and sneaked out of the city in a convoy with at least five other families.

Another man, who would not give his name because he feared for relatives who remained in Tripoli, said Gaddafi’s troops first turned him back from one road but he managed to find another way, traveling with his wife and two daughters.

Libya’s revolt began in February, with the revolutionaries quickly wresting control of much of the eastern half of the country, as well as pockets in the west. The conflict later settled into a stalemate with the revolutionaries failing to budge the front lines in the east since April.

The assault from Nafusa is an attempt to try to circumvent the deadlock.

At the main front in the east, revolutionaries fighting Gaddafi forces claimed they captured part of a strategic port city of Brega that has repeatedly changed hands in the 6-month-old war.

Revolutionaries take casualties in fight for Brega

Revolutionaries on the eastern front of Libya’s war lost 11 men in the past 24 hours fighting to capture the strategic oil terminal and refinery at Brega on the Mediterranean coast, hospital sources said.

Sources at a hospital in Ajdabiyah to the northeast said about 50 were wounded yesterday and today and one civilian in the all-but-deserted town was killed when a rocket fired by autocrat Muammar Gaddafi’s forces hit a house.

The revolutionaries have taken the residential zone of New Brega. But that is 15 km (10 miles) from the terminal and port area.

They hope that capturing the port 750 km (466 miles) east of the capital Tripoli will be a tipping point in their nearly six-month campaign to oust Gaddafi. They want to begin exporting oil from Brega as quickly as possible.

But the battle for it has been going on for months.

“There’s close fighting in the oil terminal area this morning but maybe we can finish it off today,” said revolutionary soldier Mohammad Muftah.

Troops loyal to Gaddafi were holding onto the oil facilities, firing rockets at revolutionary positions.

Gaddafi is clinging to power despite a near five-month-old NATO air campaign, tightening economic sanctions, and a lengthening war with revolutionaries trying to end his 41-year rule.

The revolutionaries have seized large swathes of the North African state, but are deeply divided and lack experience, and Thursday’s gains in the east broke weeks of stalemate.

In the west, revolutionaries forces driving north towards the town of Zawiyah, within striking distance of Gaddafi’s stronghold in the capital, have not moved up from yesterday’s positions.

Revolutionaries said they had reached the village of Bir Shuaib, some 25 km (15 miles) from Zawiyah, which has unsuccessfully risen up against Gaddafi twice this year.

PRISONER SAYS GADDAFI STRONG

Reuters interviewed a captured intelligence officer who said Gaddafi had reinforced Zawiyah, which also has a coastal oil refinery, with about 1,000 conscripts. But there were no heavy weapons there and no African mercenaries as rebels insist.

Brigadier-General Al-Hadi al-Ujaili predicted the revolutionaries would face a hard fight to capture the town. He said Gaddafi still enjoys strong support in Tripoli and among Libya’s main tribes, which he said was crucial.

The western battle is one of three widely separated rebel fronts against Gaddafi forces. In the east around the ports of Misrata and Brega, fighting had been bogged down in recent weeks while the western rebels have advanced.

Misrata, a port on the Mediterranean under rebel control for months, is about 500 km (300 miles) west of Brega.

Zawiyah lies less than 50 km (30 miles) west of Tripoli, on the main road to Tunisia, which has been a lifeline for Libya but has begun to crack down on rampant smuggling of gasoline.

Revolutionaries in the western mountains can muster a few thousand men if their separate units join forces.

MORE PRESSURE

On the diplomatic front, a Tunisian government official said on Friday there had been contacts last week between U.S. envoys and Gaddafi representatives on Tunisian soil. The official, who declined to be named, gave no further details.

U.S. officials met with Gaddafi representatives last month to deliver a message that the embattled Libyan leader must go.

In an effort to pile economic and military pressure on Gaddafi, more countries are set to announce next week that they will free frozen assets for the rebels, a British official said.

“While it’s hard to predict when this will end, it’s easy to see the pressure is building on Gaddafi and it is only a matter of time before he’s forced to leave power,” the official said.

Britain is playing a leading role in NATO air strikes against Gaddafi’s forces, which have weakened his armoury but have not enabled the rebels to deliver a knockout blow.

Tightening the economic noose around Gaddafi, Tunisia said yesterday its troops were patrolling fuel stations to curb the flow of smuggled gasoline into neighbouring Libya.

International sanctions and the effects of Libya’s war have disrupted normal supplies of fuel to parts of the country under Gaddafi’s control, but huge volumes of gasoline are instead being smuggled across the Libyan-Tunisian border.

“The armed forces are now conducting checks at fuel stations in the south of Tunisia … so that neither Tunisians nor Libyans can fill up with large quantities,” Tunisian defence ministry official Mokhtar Ben Nasr told a news conference.

“These checks are aimed at preventing the smuggling of diesel and gasoline to Libya.”

Video: Apache helicopters firing at a military communication center and troops at Al-Watiyah, southwest of Tripoli

The video below shows footage of Apache helicopters firing at a military communication center and troops at Al-Watiyah, located southwest of Tripoli.

Sorry

Sorry for not being on for a while as I have been busy. I hope this won't happen again.

State TV shows footage of Khamis Gaddafi

Libyan state television broadcast images today of a man it said was Muammar Gaddafi’s youngest son in an attempt to refute claims that he had been killed in a NATO airstrike.

Revolutionaries claimed last week that 27-year-old Khamis Gaddafi, who commands one of the best trained and equipped units in Gaddafi’s military, was killed in the western front-line town of Zlitan. The regime dismissed the claim and said the revolutionaries were only trying to deflect attention from the killing last week of the opposition’s military commander.

The images on television showed the son at a Tripoli hospital visiting people wounded in a NATO airstrike and said it was on Tuesday. If genuine, it would be the first time he has been seen in public since the reports of his death.

The Libyan revolution that began in February has sunk into a deep stalemate in the past few months, with the revolutionaries holding on to most of the eastern half of the country that they captured early on and Gaddafi’s regime controlling most of the west. Neither side has been able to tip the balance into an outright victory, even with months of NATO airstrikes pounding regime targets.

State television also showed funerals for dozens of civilians it said had died in another NATO airstrike on Tuesday in Zlitan, a main front for the rebels fighting Gadhafi’s troops. It is about 90 miles (140 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli.

The channel has been airing images in black and white to honor a three-day mourning period for the 85 people the Gaddafi government said lost their lives in Zlitan.

More than 200 people gathered around about 40 coffins set on the ground in a cemetery under the shadows of palm trees. Someone with a loudspeaker delivered a speech while the crowd interrupted him with calls of “Allahu Akbar” — Arabic for God is Great.

“Let everyone know that the planes, supported by the governments of Qatar and the Emirates, will only increase our grudge against them and will only increase our steadfastness in the face of the enemy,” the man with the loudspeaker said. A day earlier, state television ran images of Libyans rummaging through the rubble of buildings the government said were destroyed by the airstrike. They were shown digging out body parts and piling dead babies in sacks in the back of ambulances. It said 33 children and 32 women were among those killed.

In Brussels today, NATO described the Gaddafi claims about deaths among civilians as “unfounded allegations.”

“We stand by our conviction that this was a military target,” said an official who could not be named understanding rules. “Careful planning went into the strike to make sure that civilians would not be harmed.”

In other developments, the European Union said it was adding two more Libyan businesses to its list of companies and individuals targeted by sanctions. A statement said the two firms would be named tomorrow in the EU’s official journal.

So far, the 27-nation bloc has frozen the funds of six port authorities, 49 state-run companies and 39 individuals “involved in the serious human rights abuses in Libya.”

The 39 individuals, who include Muammar Gaddafi and several of his family members, are also banned from traveling to the bloc.

And in the United Arab Emirates, a new Libyan ambassador backed by the revolutionaries’ leadership party, the National Transitional Council (NTC), officially presented his credentials to a foreign affairs ministry undersecretary, Mubarak al-Junaibi. The ambassador, Arif Ali, expressed the council’s gratitude for the Emirates’ support, according to a report on official state news agency WAM.

The UAE joined the NATO-led coalition enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya, and was one of the first Arab countries to recognize the NTC.

Power, petrol shortages in Tripoli frustrates Libyans

Power and petrol shortages are afflicting the Libyan capital Tripoli, deepening public frustration as months of conflict with NATO-backed revolutionaries take their toll on the seat of Muammar Gaddafi’s power.

Tripoli has suffered blackouts increasingly often in the past few weeks. Many residents have no air conditioning during peak summer heat and no refrigeration as they prepare for evening meals during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Some areas of the Libyan capital are getting as little as four hours of power a day, residents said this week. The Gaddafi regime blames smuggling, revolutionary attacks on pipelines and NATO airstrikes on power lines — which the alliance denies.

Even in tightly-controlled Tripoli, where foreign journalists are trailed at all times by Gaddafi government minders and prohibited from reporting freely, there are signs the scarcities are fueling resentment against the Gaddafi government.

In recent days, witnesses say, there have been isolated, sporadic gatherings of people angry about the deterioration in living conditions.

After initial protests when the revolution against Gaddafi broke out last winter, Tripoli’s residents have been relatively quiescent, helping him to defy the Western-led military alliance trying to unseat him with airstrikes.

One area on the eastern outskirts of Tripoli, Tajoura, went without power for 28 hours this week. Foreign embassies have also suffered power outages that last for most of the day.

Mohamed Abu Ajeela Rashid, a former Libyan health minister who is now a senior hospital doctor, said the shortages were causing serious problems. Yesterday, he said, power was cut off while he was performing an operation and he had to complete it by the light of his cell phone.

The power crunch hit this week the hotel where foreign journalists stay, a bubble of luxury and one of the few places in Tripoli where an Internet service is available.

Libyans are already grappling with the impact of Gaddafi’s isolation and almost six months of civil conflict that has torn the country in two between Gaddafi and liberated areas, as well as bringing the NATO airstrikes.

In coastal areas around Tripoli, cars line up for kilometres (miles) at the few petrol stations still open. Many Libyans have sold their cars or parked them indefinitely for lack of fuel.

During a month when families and friends typically gather for elaborate evening meals after a day-long fast, ordinary cooking fuel has become scarce and expensive. A gas container that cost less than the equivalent of $2-3 a few months ago can cost at least 20 times that amount, if it can be found.

THE WORST RAMADAN

“No one is buying anything,” shopkeeper Adel said bleakly in his darkened, deserted shoe store in the Ghut al-Shaal neighbourhood of western Tripoli, where power was out on Saturday afternoon. “This is the worst Ramadan of my life.”

OPEC member Libya, which has Africa’s largest crude oil reserves, uses its gas and diesel supplies to generate electricity but has relied on gasoline imports for vehicles.

International sanctions have hindered trade while the revolutionaries have tried to cripple Gaddafi’s military and political power by shutting off oil supplies to the Zawiyah refinery near Tripoli.

Adding to the problem, the Gaddafi government says, is smuggling of Libyan diesel, which should be going to fuel power stations, into neighbouring Tunisia where it is traded for petrol that can be sold for vehicle use in Libya.

Libyan state television broadcasted today, an appeal to the public to conserve power. It said people should switch off air conditioners when they leave their offices, and use air conditioning in mosques only during prayer time.

The daytime temperature in Tripoli today was 41 Celsius (106 Fahrenheit).

Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim told reporters this week that the power shortages were caused by NATO strikes on power turbines and revolutionary attacks on pipelines. “These attacks are aimed at starving and displacing the Libyan people and causing a humanitarian crisis. What do power lines have to do with military battles or protecting civilians?” Kaim said.

“It is unethical what NATO is doing for all the world to see. But Libyans, thank God, know who really is behind this.”

Asked about that allegation, a NATO official told Reuters: “NATO has never targeted Libya’s electrical power lines.”

“There is no evidence to suggest that, if the country’s power lines have been damaged, such an event could be linked to a NATO strike. All our strikes are conducted with great care and precision and are the results of meticulous planning.”

But at least some Tripoli residents blame the alliance. Vegetable merchant Abdul Salim Tarhouni said his home goes without power for many hours at a time.

“We have no fuel, no cars, and it’s all NATO’s fault,” he said. “It’s okay, though — even if we have to go without water, we will stand by our leader.”