Libyan rebels pushed deeper into government-held territory south of the capital on Wednesday, but their advance came as strains began to emerge in the Western alliance trying to topple Muammar Gaddafi.
Fighters in the Western Mountains, a rebel stronghold about 150 km south-west of Tripoli, built on gains made in the past few days by taking two villages from which pro-Gaddafi forces had for months been shelling rebel-held towns.
But the rebels are still a long way from Gaddafi's main stronghold in Tripoli, while their fellow fighters on the other two fronts — in Misrata and in eastern Libya — have made only halting progress against better-armed government troops.
'The revolutionaries now control Zawiyat al-Babour and al-Awiniyah after pro-Gaddafi forces retreated this morning from the two villages,' said Abdulrahman, a rebel spokesman in the nearby town of Zintan.
'The government brigades had been positioned in those two villages for three months. They posed a real threat from there,' he said by telephone from Zintan.
The NATO military alliance, which has been pounding Gaddafi's military and command-and-control structures for nearly three months, has failed to dislodge him.
In a theatrical show of defiance, Libyan state television showed Gaddafi at the weekend playing a game of chess with a visiting Russian official.
Ties are becoming strained in the alliance, with some reluctant to commit additional resources needed to sustain the bombing mission in the coming months.
source:New Age
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