BENGHAZI, Libya — Moammar Gadhafi’s forces rocketed rebel fighters Thursday in the formidable strongholds and training camps they have built up in the strategic mountain heights southwest of the Libyan capital, rebels said.
The two sides appeared to be fighting for control of the two highways to the north and south of the Nafusa mountain range, which slices across the desert south of Tripoli to the western border with Tunisia. Rebels, in particular, have used the road, bringing in supplies for camps to train fighters for what they hope will be a future push on the capital.
NATO airstrikes in Tripoli resumed late Thursday. At least one appeared to hit a warship docked in the port, where flames and smoke could be seen rising from the vessel.
The shuddering airstrike could be heard as Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim spoke to reporters at a late-night news conference. He said that in a meeting Tuesday with Russian leaders, an envoy offered to withdraw Libyan fighters from cities if rebels do the same, as part of a peace deal.
“We are even prepared to go as far as withdrawing our army from all Libyan cites and population centers,” he said. “This is a new offer.”
Ibrahim said the offer was the furthest the government had gone since fighting broke out against the rebels. He said as part of the deal, NATO would also have to halt its strikes of Libyan targets.
There was no immediate comment by rebel leaders based in the eastern city of Benghazi.
The rebels have rejected previous offers, emboldened by NATO strikes that have helped them cling to swaths of the country, and because they say they don’t trust Gadhafi’s regime.
Also Thursday, Gadhafi appeared briefly on Libyan state TV, his first appearance in several days.
As the fighting in the mountains intensified this week, the rebel leadership in the east of the country said Thursday it was receiving graphic reports of hospitals overwhelmed with casualties and of wounded having to be loaded onto donkeys and smuggled past government blockades to get treatment elsewhere.
Much of Thursday’s fighting focused on the city of Zintan, the rebel command center for the mountain range. Rebels fought to hold back government troops rocketing their positions to the east and southeast of Zintan, said resident and activist Hamed Enbayah.
The shelling killed at least one rebel fighter and wounded three others, he said.
NATO airstrikes in Libya’s embattled western mountains are having no noticeable effect, a rebel representative from Zintan told reporters Thursday.
Britain’s defense secretary, Liam Fox, told lawmakers Thursday that U.K. fighter jets have fired at least 240 missiles in about 440 sorties over Libya since NATO’s campaign of airstrikes began. Fox outlined the figures in a written statement and said they were accurate up to May 8.
