Gaddafi loyalists, opponents fight in Tripoli

With rebels claiming to have seized three key towns and saying they were advancing on Tripoli from the west, the veteran leader urged supporters to "march by the millions" to liberate cities held by "traitors and rats."

Gaddafi's defiance was echoed by his son Seif al-Islam who said in a speech aired today that the regime would not "abandon the fight" against the rebels.

Intermittent gunfire crackled in Tripoli today morning after four strong blasts were heard shortly after 4:00 am (0200 GMT) as NATO warplanes flew overhead, an AFP journalist said.

The targets were not immediately identifiable but witnesses reported clashes in several districts between insurgents and Gaddafi supporters, namely in the eastern neighbourhoods of Soug Jomaa, Arada and Tajura.

Government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim admitted there were "small clashes" that lasted 30 minutes but stressed the pro-regime volunteers and Gaddafi forces repelled insurgents who had "infiltrated" the capital.

"The situation is under control," Ibrahim said on state television.

Nevertheless sustained gunfire and some blasts could still be heard in the capital after the blasts, an AFP correspondent said.

Witnesses said residents of Tajura, Soug Jomaa and Fashlum east of Tripoli took to the streets late yesterday, setting tyres ablaze while calls urging the population to rise were made from the loudspeakers of mosques.

The Libyan authorities meanwhile sent text messages on mobile phones urging people to take to the streets across the country "to eliminate the traitors... with weapons."

Rebel fighters meanwhile told an AFP correspondent that they were battling Gaddafi loyalists in the Gadayem forest some 24 kilometres west of Tripoli which they hoped to reach later today.

"We want to go to Tripoli today," one of the fighters, Bassam, said, adding that NATO forces had been attacking the forest all night.

Another rebel, Mohammed, later said: "We have taken the forest."

Mohammed said snipers were still holed up in the woods but that insurgents had
managed to make their way past the forests and were engaging the Gaddafi supporters.

The claims could not be independently verified.

A rebel doctor, Yusef Mustafa el-Deak, said that four insurgents died in the battle today, while another who declined to be named spoke of 10 rebels who had minor gunshot wounds.

The rebels have been moving from the centre of Zawiyah, one of three strategic towns on the road to Tripoli which insurgents claim to have captured over the past two days.

The other two are Brega and Zliten.

Jubilant rebels celebrated their capture of the strategic eastern oil hub of Brega, a day after saying they had seized Zawiyah and Zliten, two other key towns.

However, rebel Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani said retreating Gaddafi forces shelled Brega's industrial zone yesterday and that his men had pulled back to its eastern edge to avoid unnecessary casualties and property damage.

"We moved three kilometres yesterday (Saturday) and three kilometres the day before (from the centre of Zawiyah). There is heavy fighting, and incoming mortars, rockets and sniper fire," rebel fighter Shukri Sadi told AFP.

In his eastern stronghold of Benghazi, rebel chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil claimed that victory was within reach, six months after the insurgency was launched.

"We have contacts with people from the inner circle of Gaddafi," the chairman of the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) said today. "All evidence (shows) that the end is very near, with God's grace."