Gaddafi troops force back rebels from centre of key city

Muammar Gaddafi’s forces pushed rebels back from the centre of Zawiya yesterday in fierce fighting to try to prevent the opposition from consolidating a major advance to within 30 miles of the capital Tripoli.

Meanwhile Libyan Interior Minister Nassr al-Mabrouk Abdullah flew into Egypt on his private plane with nine family members in what could be a high-level defection.

He arrived after a weekend of significant advances by rebels from Libya’s western mountains towards Gaddafi’s stronghold of Tripoli. The rebels on Saturday pushed through to Zawiya, just 30 miles west of the capital on the Mediterranean coast, for the first time since the uprising against Gaddafi began in February.

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The rebel advance was raising fears among Tripoli residents over the prospect that fighting might soon reach the capital. Cars carrying civilians fleeing Tripoli crossed checkpoints on a desert road around Zawiya, headed for the rebel-held western mountains.

Regime forces pushed the rebels back from Zawiya in fighting concentrated on the coastal road and the border crossing with Tunisia.

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