Rebel fighters drive out Gaddafi soldiers in three towns

Four rebel fighters were killed and several wounded in what the spokesmen described as the biggest push in the area since the start of Libya’s civil war five months ago.

They said rebels captured 18 government soldiers, as well as weapons and ammunition.

Libya’s civil war has been largely deadlocked and rebels have been unable to score a major breakthrough on the battlefield. Rebels control Libya’s eastern third and most of the Nafusa mountains in the west, as well as the western port city of Misrata. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, entrenched in the capital of Tripoli, is clinging to the rest of the territory.

Yesterday’s fighting saw hundreds of rebels descended from their stronghold in the Nafusa mountains at dawn and advanced along a stretch of more than 100 kilometres (60 miles).

Opposition forces drove government troops out of the small towns of Jawsh, Ghezaya and Takut, the rebels said.