Libya conflict: Rebels battle for Zawiya and Zlitan

Rebels in Zawiya said they were forcing out the last government troops from the city

Rebels in Libya have been facing fierce resistance as they fight for two cities on the approaches to Tripoli in their drive to unseat Col Muammar Gaddafi.

After heavy losses, rebels said they had control of Zlitan, 160km (100 miles) east of the capital.
To the west, the opposition said they were clearing out the last pro-Gaddafi troops from Zawiya, 30km from Tripoli.
As the rebels advance, plans are being made to evacuate thousands of foreign workers stranded in the city.
"The fighters have liberated Zlitan and they are fighting west of the city," the Associated Press news agency quoted Munir Ramzi of the opposition Misrata Military Council as saying.
He said the rebels were in control of the city and Col Gaddafi's forces were fleeing after Friday's fighting.
Thirty-one rebels were killed and 120 wounded in fighting which lasted for much of the day, he said.
The city represents a key position in the path from nearby Misrata, which until recently was besieged by Col Gaddafi's forces, to Tripoli.
 
''Defection''
           On the western side of the capital, there were explosions and gunfire in Zawiya as rebels fought to clear the last remaining government soldiers from the city.
Capturing the town cuts the main road from Tripoli to Tunisia, severing the principal supply route for Col Gaddafi's forces.
On Thursday, rebel forces captured an oil refinery outside the town which supplied the government troops with fuel.
Rebel forces have also moved towards Tripoli from the south.
Nato, enforcing a UN-mandated no-fly zone to protect civilians since March, controls sea access to Tripoli.
Meanwhile Col Gaddafi's former deputy has defected, rebels said, and was on his way to Europe.
Abdel Salam Jalloud helped Col Gaddafi come to power in the 1969 coup that toppled the monarchy but fell out with him in the 1990s.
Libya's conflict broke out in February, inspired by uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt which toppled the presidents of those countries.
Rebels in the east rapidly consolidated their gains, but a stalemate developed in the west as rebels there faced overwhelming military force.
The fighting has stranded thousands of migrant workers - many of them Egyptians - in Tripoli.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said it was planning to evacuate them in the coming days.
Since the conflict in Libya began, an estimated 600,000 migrant workers have fled the country, many with the help of the IOM, but many remain.

Rebels quickly consolidated gains in the east of the country, but until recently Col Gaddafi's forces held much of the west.

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