Libya Rebels Battle For Key Oil Port

The Associated Press reports:

A Libyan rebel spokesman said opposition forces were battling troops loyal to Muammar al-Qaddafi on Saturday in the western city of Zawiya. It was the first major fighting in the oil port since government troops crushed opposition forces there in March.

Guma el-Gamaty, a London-based spokesman for the rebels' national council, says the opposition fighters were in control of a large area on the western side of the city. A rebel fighter who fled Zawiya at the end of March said "there are clashes inside Zawiya itself."

The rebel, who identified himself only as Kamal, said "the fighters are back in the city" and that he had spoken with them. Zawiya had been the closest city to the capital Tripoli to fall into rebel hands.

Britain, meanwhile, reported on sorties flown by its air force on Friday, part of the NATO mission to protect civilians and help rebels who rose up against Qaddafi four months ago.

Maj. Gen. Nick Pope, top spokesman for the defense staff, said British jets destroyed four Qaddafi tanks hidden in an orchard southwest of Tripoli, the capital. The jets also dropped nine bunker-buster bombs on government military installations on the western outskirts of the capital.

Witnesses, however, reported seeing no NATO aircraft in the vicinity of the rebel-held port city of Misrata on Friday as Qaddafi forces shelled towns on the western outskirts of the city, 125 miles east of Tripoli.