Libya reject

Libya has rejected a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for the arrest of Col Muammar Gaddafi, saying the tribunal has no authority.

The ICC earlier accused the Libyan leader of crimes against humanity.
The court had grounds to believe he had ordered attacks on civilians during Libya's four-month uprising, it said.
The Hague-based court also issued warrants for two of Col Gaddafi's top aides - his son Saif al-Islam and intelligence chief Abdullah al-Sanussi.
Thousands of people are believed to have been killed in the conflict.
Anti-Gaddafi forces said on Monday they had launched a new push towards Tripoli, with heavy fighting near the strategic town of Bir al-Ghanam, to the south-west of capital.
The rebel defence minister told the BBC that forces opposed to Col Gaddafi may also make a move on the capital from the east.
'Unquestioned control' Libya's justice minister said Libya did not accept the ICC's decision to call for Col Gaddafi's arrest.

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Analysis

Bridget Kendall BBC News, Benghazi

This is in some way Libya's 'Wild East': Since the uprising began in February, Benghazi has become a city stocked with arms and a population of young men eager to let off exuberant volleys at the slightest provocation. But there was real passion in their reaction to the ICC's announcement.
Many in the rebels' eastern stronghold seem impatient to see their former leader brought to justice, not just for his attempts to crush their uprising, but also for what they remember as brutal oppression by his regime for more than 40 years. And many appear to be increasingly optimistic that it could happen soon.
The rebel leadership says there is still a plan to advance on Tripoli from all sides, squeeze Col Gaddafi's supporters, and undermine him through uprisings from within the city. But they also seem to be hoping they can avoid a final military showdown, and instead force the Libyan leader out of office without more bloodshed.

• Tide turning against Gaddafi?

Mohammad al-Qamoodi told a Tripoli news conference the court was "a tool of the Western world to prosecute leaders in the third world".

He added: "The leader of the revolution and his son do not hold any official position in the Libyan government and therefore they have no connection to the claims of the ICC against them."
The warrants refer to early weeks of the uprising, from 15 February until "at least 28 February".
There were "reasonable grounds to believe" that the three men were "criminally responsible" for the murder and persecution of civilians, said a statement read out by the ICC's presiding judge, Sanji Monageng.
Col Gaddafi had absolute and unquestioned control over Libya as its undisputed leader, and had introduced a policy to quell civilian demonstrations by any means, including by the use of force, said the court.
While Saif al-Islam Gaddafi held no official position in Libya, he was "the most influential person" in Col Gaddafi's inner circle, it added.
Mr Sanussi, said the court, had "indirectly instructed the troops to attack civilians demonstrating" in Benghazi, the city that has become the rebels' stronghold.
The warrants had been requested by chief ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo in May, to protect Libyan civilians.
There was celebratory gunfire in the streets of the rebel stronghold of Benghazi and the besieged city of Misrata as the news emerged.

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ICC warrants of arrest

• Issued against Muammar Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi and Abdullah al-Senussi
• For alleged criminal responsibility for the commission of murder and persecution as crimes against humanity from 15 February 2011 onwards
• Charges relate to actions of Libyan State apparatus and security forces in Tripoli, Benghazi, Misrata and elsewhere in Libya

• Libya ICC: Gaddafi co-accused

The rebel Transitional National Council's Ibrahim Dabbashi welcomed the decision, saying people close to Col Gaddafi should now urge him to step down.

"Those who are working with Gaddafi now… know that they are working with at least a suspected criminal, if they don't believe that he is a criminal," Mr Dabbashi, a former Libyan ambassador to the UN, told the BBC's Newshour programme.
"I think they have to convince Gaddafi to step down and to try to safe his life and the lives of his family."
On the military front, meanwhile, the rebels advanced some six miles (10km) towards Tripoli on Monday, says the BBC's Mark Doyle on the front line about 40 miles south-west of the capital.
The fighting was taking place on a plain of rock and sand between Bir al-Ghanem and Bir Ayyad a few miles to the south, with shells whistling overhead in both directions and plumes of smoke and sand rising into the air, he says.
The rebels seemed better armed in this strategic area than elsewhere in the country, adds our correspondent, who saw several pick-up trucks full of rebel soldiers - in clean uniforms and new-looking rocket launchers and rifles - heading for the front line.
The ICC announcement came as the international air operation in Libya, aimed at protecting civilians, entered its 100th day.
It was welcomed by Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, as well as the governments of Nato allies France, the UK and the US.

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'forgotten war'-Libya

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The BBC's Mark Doyle visited a rebel lookout in the Western Mountains

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Libya Crisis

• The story so far
• Could Nato mission unravel?
• 'Haunted by deaths'
• Rape victims face 'honour killings'

The Western Mountains are almost the "forgotten front" in the complex war raging across Libya - and it is a violent front.

Shortly after arriving in the town of Nalut, an hour's drive from the Tunisian border, I heard a series of terrifying explosions.
A volley of Grad missiles - self-propelled explosive rockets about a metre long - had torn into buildings and smashed into the rocky outcrops that surround Nalut.
They were fired by troops loyal to Col Muammar Gaddafi from their positions in the valleys and plains below the Western Mountains, or Jebel Nafusa.
On this occasion, no-one was reported hurt.

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We rely on our courage - and on Nato”

A resident of Nalut

But the basic hospitals of the mountains - and the more sophisticated medical facilities of neighbouring Tunisia - are full of hundreds of injured from the forgotten front.

The day before I arrived in Nalut I heard Nato planes circling the area.
I later learnt that these Nato planes had attacked a pro-Gaddafi position in Ain Ghezaia, just below the mountain road leading to Nalut.
"We are very pleased with this Nato attack. It has reduced the number of Grad attacks," one resident of Nalut said.
But - as I discovered - it has not stopped them.
'Painfully young men' Since April, the mainly ethnic Berber rebels have consolidated their hold on a string of towns from the Tunisian border in the far west to within a few hours' drive of Tripoli.
But the final drive to the capital - if it comes - will be a fierce battle.
The general picture in the Western Mountains is that the rebels hold the high ground, while Col Gaddafi's troops hold the heavy weapons.

Some of the rebels have no military experience

Most of the Berber rebels, in a loose alliance with the National Transitional Council in Libya's second city, Benghazi, have only small arms - rifles or hand-held machine guns.
Some have larger guns mounted on the back of pickups, known as "technicals" after their widespread use in Somalia, but these are rare.
The rebels count instead on their superior knowledge of the mountains against Col Gaddafi, in much the same way that Libyan nationalists battled the colonial power, Italy, by taking to the high ground.
In other battles, the rebels have few advantages against the arsenal of heavy weapons and tanks that Col Gaddafi can deploy.
"We rely on our courage - and on Nato," said another man.

I watched a group of rebels training in a barracks in Nalut.
They were keen and roused their morale with constant shouts of "Allahu Akhbar" or renditions of the old Libyan national anthem which Col Gaddafi banned.
But they were painfully young men who did not look ready for war.
The soldier who fired a gun into the air to encourage them as they scrambled under barbed wire on the training ground needed help with reloading it.
To be fair, these were mostly new recruits.
Rebels in other parts of the mountains are said to be far better trained.
Those who have seen them operate say they are fearless and totally committed to their cause.
'Jigsaw of war' Like elsewhere in Libya, they want the overthrow of Col Gaddafi, less corruption and better social services like education and health.

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I can't fight on towards Tripoli when I also have the enemy at my back”

Rebel commander

But here in the Western Mountains there is also another motive - the reassertion of the ancient Berber culture that Col Gaddafi tried to suppress.

For now, Nalut is a shadow of its former self.
Over the two days I spent there I did not see a single woman or small child.
They have almost all taken refuge in neighbouring Tunisia or in other Berber towns in the mountains.
Before the anti-Gaddafi uprising began in earnest in Nalut, in April, the town had a population of about 30,000.
Now it has less than 8,000 - almost all men of fighting age.
I asked a senior rebel commander in the Western Mountains - which dip towards the sea near Tripoli - whether their strategy was to continue the march on the capital.
The commander, who asked not to be named because he had family in Tripoli, replied: "Maybe, but I can't fight on towards Tripoli when I also have the enemy at my back."

The mountain rebels are confident of victory

He was referring to the Sahara Desert town of Ghadames on Libya's south-western border with Algeria.
There have long been suspicions that while Tunisia, following the overthrow of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, backs the rebels, the Algerian army may prefer Col Gaddafi staying in power in Libya.
It is another piece in Libya's complex jigsaw of war.
Just as some of the Arab tribes and the ethnic Berbers may have motives that transcend the generalized "revolution", regional powers have their own agendas too.
I asked the commander if he thought Algeria was supplying Col Gaddafi with weapons.
"He has plenty of his own," the senior rebel replied.
"I don't know if the Algerian government is involved," he said, enigmatically, "but maybe it is."

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Libya: Fierce fighting south-west of Tripoli

Rebel forces in Libya have clashed with troops loyal to Col Muammar Gaddafi about 80km (50 miles) south-west of the capital, Tripoli.

A rebel spokesman in the Nafusa mountains said there had been heavy fighting on the outskirts of the strategic town of Bir al-Ghanam.
The rebels told the BBC they were making a push for Tripoli.
Meanwhile the International Criminal Court is to decide whether to issue an arrest warrant for Col Gaddafi.
A decision by a three-judge panel is expected at 1100 GMT. The ICC's chief prosecutor has also requested arrest warrants for Col Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam, and the head Libyan intelligence, Abdullah Senussi.
The warrants are for alleged crimes against humanity committed against opponents of the regime.
'Consolidating gains' The rebels control the east of the country as well as pockets of western Libya, including the Nafusa mountains.

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What we're learning from defectors is Gaddafi's inner circle is getting smaller by the day”

Jalal al-Dgheli Rebel defence minister

• In pictures: Bombs litter streets
• Nato's man against Gaddafi

Guma el-Gamaty, a spokesman for the rebels' National Transitional Council (NTC), told AP news agency that Bir al-Ghanam - the focus of the latest fighting - was important as it was barely 30km south of Zawiya, a western gateway to Tripoli.

Opposition fighters seized Zawiya in March before government troops drove the rebels out of the oil-refinery city. Fighting again broke out there this month.
The BBC's Mark Doyle, who is in the village of Bir Ayad near Bir al-Ghanam, says Sunday's fighting began when government forces tried to cut off the rebels by attacking from behind.
Clashes continued in the distance, where the boom of artillery, the rattle of automatic gunfire and the occasional rumble of Nato jets could be heard, he says.
A medic said two rebels had died in the battle. The rebels also said government forces suffered far greater casualties, although that cannot be confirmed.
The rebels came down into the plains from the Nafusa mountains in early June, adds our correspondent. But they have met strong resistance from Col Gaddafi's forces.
He says that although it is a shifting front line, the rebels appear to be gradually consolidating their position in the mountains.

The minister of defence for Libya's rebels, Jalal al-Dgheli, told the BBC that because their weapons were so limited, most of them were focused on the push from the western mountains towards Tripoli.
But in the near future there could be an advance from the east near Brega towards Tripoli, he told the BBC's Bridget Kendall in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.
He added: "What we're learning from defectors is that Gaddafi's supporters are getting fewer, people who are close to him are abandoning him, and his inner circle is getting smaller by the day."
'Election proposal' The Libyan government on Sunday meanwhile reportedly renewed its offer for a vote on whether Col Gaddafi should stay in power.
Gaddafi spokesman Moussa Ibrahim was quoted as telling reporters in Tripoli that the government was proposing a period of national dialogue and an election overseen by the UN and African Union.

A Libyan woman fires at a graduation ceremony after a weapons training course in Tripoli

"If the Libyan people decide Gaddafi should leave he will leave," Mr Ibrahim was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying. "If the people decide he should stay he will stay."
But he said Col Gaddafi - who has run the oil-producing country since a military coup in 1969 - would not go into exile.
The idea of holding an election was first raised earlier this month by Saif al-Islam Gaddafi.
Since then Italy has called for a political settlement to the conflict, following a Nato strike in Tripoli on 19 June that killed several civilians.
In a separate development, African leaders meeting in Pretoria said Col Gaddafi has agreed to stay out of talks aimed at ending the conflict.
In a communique after talks on Sunday, the African Union panel on Libya said it welcomed "Col Gaddafi's acceptance of not being part of the negotiations process".
The statement did not elaborate.

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