Libyan rebels said yesterday they had seized a second strategic town near Tripoli within 24 hours, completing the encirclement of the capital in the boldest advances of their six-month uprising against Muammar Gadafy.
In a barely audible telephone call to state television overnight, a defiant and apparently isolated Col Gadafy called on his followers to fight rebels, whom he referred to as “rats”.
Government forces fired mortars and rockets at the coastal town of Zawiyah a day after rebels captured its centre in a thrust that severed the vital coastal highway from Tripoli to the Tunisian border, a potential turning point in the war.
Rebels said they captured the town of Garyan, south of Tripoli, yesterday. That could not be immediately verified, but if true it would cut off the other main route to the capital.
“Garyan is fully in the hands of the revolutionaries,” a rebel spokesman, Abdulrahman, said by telephone. “Gadafy has been isolated. He has been cut off from the outside world.”
A UN envoy arrived in neighbouring Tunisia, where sources say rebels and representatives of the government have been holed up in the island resort of Djerba for negotiations.
Previous attempts at negotiations have been fruitless. Rebels may still lack the manpower for an all-out assault on Tripoli, but are hoping their encirclement of the capital will bring down Col Gadafy’s government or inspire an uprising.
In the past, however, they have frequently failed to hold gains, and a fightback by Gadafy troops could yet break the siege.
Col Gadafy’s government denies talks with rebels are taking place. His spokesman dismissed reports of negotiations about the Libyan leader’s future as part of a “media war” against him.
“The leader is here in Libya, fighting for the freedom of our nation. He will not leave Libya,” Moussa Ibrahim said.
Abdel Elah al-Khatib, the UN envoy for Libya, arrived in Tunisia and met its prime minister. He told Reuters he would meet “Libyan personalities residing in Tunisia” to discuss the conflict.
“Any official talks are confined to the two parties of the crisis, the Transitional National Council and the Libyan government, while at the same time I am open to listening to all views from all segments of Libyan society,” he said.
Egyptian sources said a senior Libyan security official, Nasser al-Mabrouk Abdullah, had flown to Cairo with nine relatives from Djerba. He told officials he was on holiday.
Gadafy officials in Tripoli said Mr Abdullah was a former public security minister and now held a top security position. They said his travel was unofficial. A source at the Libyan embassy in Cairo said he had not made contact with it.
The rebel advances are a relief for Nato allies, especially France and Britain, which have been in the vanguard of a bombing campaign since March that they say will not end until Gadafy leaves power.
The UN mandate authorising Nato to use force to protect civilians expires next month.
A spokesman for British prime minister David Cameron said Britain was aware of reports of rebel progress.
Col Gadafy’s overnight speech was delivered over a poor-quality telephone and broadcast by state TV in audio only, giving the impression the leader was in a bunker or other remote hideout.
“Move forward, challenge, pick up your weapons, go to the fight for liberating Libya inch by inch from the traitors and from NATO,” the 68-year-old leader said. “The blood of martyrs is fuel for the battle . . . The end of colonialism is near. The end of the rats is near, as they flee . . .”
In Zawiyah, rebel fighter Khalid Al-Zawi said: “Gadafy is crazy. He’s capable of absolutely anything. That’s one thing we have to keep in mind.”