MISRATA: Government artillery rained down on rebel forces Monday but failed to stop their advance into key ground west of their stronghold at Libya's major port. As fighting raged for a fourth day, Germany's foreign minister paid a surprise visit to the rebel's de facto capital. The German foreign ministry said Guido Westerwelle was meeting with the Transitional National Council to deepen relations with the rebels and their nascent government. Should the Germans recognize the council as the legitimate governing power in Libya, it would mark yet another big diplomatic boost for the rebels who rose up four months ago to end Muammar Gaddafi's 40-year rule in the oil-rich North African country. Germany refused to participate in the NATO air mission over Libya and withheld support for the no-fly zone. The rebels control roughly the eastern one-third of Libya as well as Misrata, the country's major port. The also claim to have taken parts of coastal oil center of Zawiya in the far west. That port city is 30 km west of Tripoli and a prize that would put them in striking distance of the capital. Control of the city also would cut one of Muammar Gaddafi's last supply routes from Tunisia. Despite rebel claims, government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said late Sunday that Gaddafi forces had driven off the attackers, and reporters taken to Zawiya saw secure streets and the green national flag flying over a central square. The insurgents, for their part, claimed a high-ranking Gaddafi commander was badly wounded in the fighting. “The wishful reporting of some journalists that the rebels are gaining more power and more control of some areas is not correct,” he said. In the major fighting near Misrata Monday, an Associated Press photographer at the rebel front lines said they had pushed along the Mediterranean Sea to within 10 km of Zlitan. A rebel commander said his forces, using arms seized from government weapons depots and fresh armaments being shipped in from Benghazi, planned to have moved into Zlitan, by Tuesday. Ali Terbelo, the rebel commander, said other opposition forces already were in Zlitan, trying to encircle Gadhafi troops. If the rebels take the city they would be within 135 km of the eastern outskirts of Gadhafi's capital, Tripoli. An AP reporter with rebel forces said shelling was intense Monday morning with rockets and artillery and mortar shells slamming into rebel lines west of Dafniya at a rate of about 7 each minute. Dafniya is about 30 km west of Misrata Officials at Hikma Hospital in Misrata said government shelling killed seven and wounded 49 Sunday. New casualty figures were not available but ambulances were rushing from the Dafniya line back into Misrata. The rebel thrust at Zawiya and movements farther east — near Misrata and Brega — suggested the stalemated uprising had been reinvigorated, and that Gadhafi's defenders may become stretched thin. “Over the past three days, we set fire under the feet of Gadhafi forces everywhere,” Col. Hamid Al-Hasi, a rebel battalion commander, told AP. He said the rebels attacked “in very good coordination with NATO” to avoid friendly-fire incidents. “We don't move unless we have very clear instructions from NATO.” In addition, the NATO blockade of ports still under government control and alliance control of Libyan airspace have severely crimped the North African dictator's ability to resupply his forces.
