Moscow, Paris argue on arms deliveries to Libya

Libyan rebels claim push toward Tripoli

Fighters eye key gateway to capital, oil refinery

Libyan rebels rest after a heavy fight with pro-Moammar Gadhafi forces. The rebels say they are engaging in fierce clashes with government fighters southwest of the capital of Tripoli. (Abdel-Kader Fassouk/Associated Press)

Rebels in Libya's western mountains say they have advanced and are battling Moammar Gadhafi's forces in a strategic town southwest of the capital, raising pressure against government troops on a second front.
The rebels' claim of an advance into the outskirts of the town of Bair al-Ghanam, some 80 kilometres from Tripoli, follows weeks of intense fighting in the Nafusa Mountains, where opposition forces have slowly pushed Gadhafi troops back toward the capital.
Libya's rebels control the eastern third of the country and pockets, including a number of mountain towns, in the west.
The bulk of the fighting in recent months has been focused on front lines to the east of Tripoli. But a push by rebels from the Nafusa Mountains could force Gadhafi to commit more troops to the southern and western approaches to the capital.

Rebels beaten back from Zawiya in March

A rebel military spokesman in the Nafusa Mountains, Gomaa Ibrahim, said opposition fighters and government troops have been fighting since early Sunday on the periphery of Bair al-Ghanam.
Guma el-Gamaty, a spokesman for the rebels' National Transitional council, said the town is significant because it is only 30 kilometres south of the city of Zawiya, a key western gateway to the capital and home to a crucial oil refinery.read more.