Libyan rebels and forces loyal to Muammar Gadafy battled for control of the strategic eastern town of Ajdabiyah today after government troops fought their way inside.
Ajdabiyah is the gateway to the rebels' stronghold of Benghazi, Libya's second largest city, and has been the launch point for insurgents during a week-long fight for the oil port of Brega further west.
Nato said its forces destroyed 25 tanks belonging to Col Gadafy's forces today. It said 11 vehicles were struck as they approached Ajdabiyah, and 14 were hit on the outskirts of Misrata, a lone major rebel bastion in western Libya which has been under siege for six weeks.
"The situation in Ajdabiyah, and Misrata in particular, is desperate for those Libyans who are being brutally shelled by the (Gadafy) regime," Canadian Lieutenant General Charles Bouchard, who commands Nato's Libya operations, said in a statement.
Rebels said Col Gadafy's forces killed at least four rebel fighters in the second day of fighting for Ajdabiyah.
Insurgent Hassan Bosayna said eight Gadafy fighters and four rebels were killed in fighting yesterday, with one of the rebels shot in the forehead by a sniper.
Another rebel, Muftah, said: "There are Gadafy forces inside Ajdabiyah in sand-coloured Land Cruisers and we know there are Gadafy snipers in civilian clothing in the city as well."
A Reuters reporter near Ajdabiyah's eastern gate heard shooting and artillery fire and saw plumes of black smoke, suggesting Col Gadafy's forces had pushed towards the centre. The mostly untrained rebels have tried to reorganise and re-equip but were unable to hold ground last week against Col Gadafy's better-armed forces in the fight for Brega.
A high-level African Union delegation led by South African president Jacob Zuma arrived in Tripoli today to try to kindle peace talks between the two sides.
South African officials said the delegation, which also included the leaders of Mauritania, Congo, Mali and Uganda, would meet rebel leaders in Benghazi after talking to Col Gadafy.
Western officials have acknowledged that their air power will not be enough to help the rag-tag rebels overthrow Col Gadafy by force and they are now emphasising a political solution.
But a rebel spokesman rejected a negotiated outcome in the conflict, the bloodiest in a series of pro-democracy revolts across the Arab world that have already dethroned the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt. Col Gadafy has been in power for 41 years.
"There is no other solution than the military solution, because this dictator's language is annihilation, and people who speak this language only understand this language," spokesman Ahmad Bani told al Jazeera television.
Analysts predict a long, low-level conflict possibly leading to partition between east and west in the sprawling North African Arab country.
The fight for Ajdabiyah followed pitched battles yesterday when rebels fought off a heavy assault by government forces on the besieged Misrata.
Col Gadafy's forces appear bent on seizing Misrata and crucially its port, which some analysts say is vital if Col Gadafy is to survive because it supplies the capital Tripoli. Rebel spokesman Mustafa Abdulrahman said by telephone that Saturday's Misrata fighting centred on a road to the port, where a Red Cross vessel brought in badly needed medical supplies earlier in the day.
A government-organised trip to Misrata revealed deserted streets and many heavily shelled buildings in the city's south.
As fighting raged on for the coastal town, where conditions are said to be desperate, a buoyant Col Gadafy made his first television appearance for five days.
Wearing his trademark brown robes and dark glasses, he was shown smiling and pumping his fists in the air at a school where he was welcomed ecstatically. Women ululated, one wept with emotion and pupils chanted anti-western slogans.
Col Gadafy looked relaxed, confirming the impression among analysts that his administration has emerged from a period of paralysis and is hunkering down for a long campaign.
Nato's commander of Libyan operations said the alliance, which took over air strikes against Col Gadafy on March 31st, had destroyed "a significant percentage" of his armoured forces and ammunition stockpiles east of Tripoli.
Lieutenant General Bouchard also accused Col Gadafy's forces of using civilians as human shields, adding to similar charges made by other Western commanders.
Rebels say people are crammed five families to a house in the few safe districts in Misrata to escape weeks of sniper, mortar and rocket fire. There are severe shortages of food, water and medical supplies, and hospitals are overflowing.
Reuters