Libyan Rebels Arm Tripoli Guerrillas

The New York Times reports:

Having consolidated control over almost all of Libya’s western mountains, rebel leaders here say they are now pursuing a two-pronged strategy to bring down the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi: starving it of resources while covertly arming a growing guerrilla force within Tripoli itself.

Though the rebels consolidated their hold on most of the Nafusa mountains only about two weeks ago, officials from the opposition stronghold of Benghazi and the operatives from the underground network in Tripoli were all here on Friday night discussing strategies already under way. The mountain rebels showed a reporter an oil pipeline they had recently cut off to Colonel Qaddafi’s last working refinery, in Zawiya.

Now rebels have their sights on Gharyan, a city of about 85,000 that is the last Nafusa mountain town under Colonel Qaddafi’s control. It is widely known as a hotbed of opposition to Colonel Qaddafi and rose up swiftly at the start of the uprising, and if the rebels can take it within the next three weeks, as they hope to do, they will block a crucial supply route from Algeria and the south.