Rebels Enter Gadhafi-held Zliten as Russia Says Conflict at 'Dead End'
Libya's rebels said on Tuesday they launched a post-dawn attack on the western town of Zliten, punching through to the center and sparking fierce clashes with forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi, as Russia said the fighting in Libya had reached a "dead end."
"The rebels advanced today inside Zliten to control the center. Now there is a vicious fight with Gadhafi's forces," said Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani, a military spokesman based in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.
The fight for Zliten -- which lies just 120 kilometers east of the capital Tripoli -- began shortly after sunrise.
In recent weeks Libya's rebels have been slowly advancing on Zliten from their enclave at Misrata, 70 kilometers to the east.
They have been aided by NATO air strikes, which on Monday hit one Gadhafi command and control node and one military facility in the town.
Zliten has long been held by Gadhafi's forces, and was suspected of being a base for multiple rocket attacks on Misrata that have killed scores of civilians.
Meanwhile in the east, Bani said rebels fought for hours with Gadhafi forces at the oil hub of Brega on Tuesday, with a small unit of 45 troops entering the town's eastern residential district.
"There were clashes with Gadhafi's forces and it went on four hours and then they had to retreat back," Bani said.
Earlier on Tuesday Russia said the fighting in Libya had reached a "dead end" that could only be resolved through dialogue and new attempts at negotiation.
"The situation has reached a dead end that confirms that there is no military solution," the head of the foreign ministry's Middle East and North Africa department Sergei Vershinin was quoted as saying by Interfax.
"We have to go back to searching for political and diplomatic solutions," he was quoted as telling a briefing of Russian reporters.
Russia abstained from a vote on a U.N. Security Council resolution in March that opened the way for air strikes on Gadhafi regime targets in Libya but has since criticized the scale and intent of the NATO-led Western campaign.
It has been involved in attempts to mediate between the rebels controlling the east of the country and the Gadhafi regime in Tripoli.
Source: Agence France Presse
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