BIR SHAEB, Libya — Libyan rebels fought their way into the strategic city of Zawiya, west of Tripoli, on Saturday in their most significant advance in months, battling snipers on rooftops and heavy shelling from Moammar Khadafy’s forces holding the city.
Zawiya, 30 miles from the capital, is a key target for rebels waging a new offensive launched from the mountains in the far west of Libya, an attempt to break the deadlock in combat between the two sides that has held for months in the center and east of the country.
A credible threat from the rebels in the west could strain Khadafy’s troops, which have been hammered for months by NATO airstrikes. Defending Zawiya is key for the regime but could require bringing in better trained forces who are currently ensuring its hold over Tripoli or fighting rebels farther east.
A group of about 200 exuberant rebel fighters, advancing from the south, reached a bridge on Zawiya’s southwestern outskirts, and some rebels pushed farther into the city’s central main square.
They tore down the green flag of Khadafy’s regime from a mosque minaret and put up two rebel flags.
An Associated Press reporter traveling with the rebels saw hundreds of residents rush into the streets, greeting the fighters piled into the backs of pickup trucks with chants of “God is great.”
Khadafy’s forces then counterattacked with a barrage of heavy weapons, and the loud crackle of gunfire could be heard as rebels and government troops battled.
Regime snipers were firing down from rooftops on the rebels, said resident Abdel-Basset Abu Riyak, who joined to fight alongside the rebels when they entered the city. He said Khadafy’s forces were holed up in several pockets in the city and there were reports of reinforcements coming from Tripoli, though there was no sign of them yet.
Rebel spokesman Jumma Ibrahim said that the opposition’s fighters controlled most of Zawiya by nightfall.
“What remains are few pockets (of Khadafy forces) in the city,” he said. “The road is now open all the way from the western mountains to Zawiya. We can send them supply and reinforcement anytime.”
Perhaps more important,the rebels now control the main highway linking Tripoli to the Tunisian border, said Fadlallah Haroun, head of the rebels’ security council in Benghazi.
