ZAWIYA: Rebels were battling forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi along the Mediterranean coast west of Tripoli Saturday, fighting their way back into the important western oil port of Zawiya. A Libyan rebel spokesman said it was the first major fighting in the city since government troops crushed opposition forces there in March. Guma El-Gamaty, a London-based spokesman for the rebels' national council, says the opposition fighters were in control of a large area on the western side of the city. A rebel fighter who fled Zawiya at the end of March said “there are clashes inside Zawiya itself.” The rebel, who identified himself only as Kamal, said “the fighters are back in the city” and that he had spoken with them. Apparently prompted by the Zawiya clashes, Libyan soldiers sealed off parts of a crucial coastal road leading from Tripoli, the capital, west to the Tunisian border. Zawiya sits about 50 km west of Tripoli. The coastal highway approaching Zawiya from the capital was clogged with soldiers and loyalist gunmen with assault rifles, some patrolling the road, others manning checkpoints. Roadside shops were shuttered. The only vehicles on the road were white jeep-style vehicles used by Gaddafi soldiers. Britain, meanwhile, reported on sorties flown by its air force Friday, part of the NATO mission to protect civilians and help rebels who rose up against Gaddafi four months ago. Maj. Gen. Nick Pope, top spokesman for the defense staff, said British jets destroyed four Gaddafi tanks hidden in an orchard southwest of Tripoli, the capital. The jets also dropped nine bunker-buster bombs on government military installations on the western outskirts of the capital.
