BENGHAZI, Libya – Libyan rebels said on Tuesday they had punched through to the center of the western town of Zlitan, sparking fierce clashes with forces loyal to Muammer Qadhafi, as Russia said the conflict had reached a dead end.
"The rebels advanced today inside Zlitan to control the center. Now there is a vicious fight with Qadhafi's forces," said Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani, a military spokesman based in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.
The fight for Zlitan – which lies just 120km east of the capital Tripoli – began shortly after sunrise and was still raging by late afternoon.
A rebel spokesman in Misrata said eight fighters had been killed and 30 had been wounded.
The spokesman, who asked not to be named, added that the rebels had killed "many" Qadhafi fighters and had captured more – including an undefined number of Chadian mercenaries.
In recent weeks Libya's rebels have been slowly advancing on Zlitan from their enclave at Misrata, 70km to the east.
They have been aided by NATO air strikes, which on Monday hit one Qadhafi's command and control center and one military facility in the town.
Zlitan has long been held by Qadhafi, and was suspected of being a base for multiple rocket attacks on Misrata that have killed scores of civilians.
In the east, Bani said rebels fought for hours with Qadhafi forces at the oil hub of Brega, with a small unit of 45 troops entering the town's eastern residential district.
"There were clashes with Qadhafi's forces and it went on four hours and then they had to retreat back," Bani said.
On Monday, rebels said they arrested dozens of loyalist militiamen in Benghazi and suffered a blow in western Libya, losing a village at the foot of a key mountain range.
At least 63 people were rounded up in an ongoing bid to tighten security in Benghazi, following an hours-long battle with Qadhafi loyalists in the opposition stronghold.
But in western Libya, Qadhafi forces wrested back control of the village of Josh at the foot of the strategic Nafusa mountains on Monday, AFP journalists at the scene said.
The Nafusa region has seen heavy fighting since the insurgents launched a major offensive this month in a drive on the capital Tripoli.
In Moscow, meanwhile, a senior Russian official said fighting in Libya had reached a "dead end" that could only be resolved through dialogue and new attempts at negotiation.
"The situation has reached a dead end that confirms that there is no military solution," the head of the foreign ministry's Middle East and North Africa department, Sergei Vershinin, was quoted by Interax as saying.
"We have to go back to searching for political and diplomatic solutions," he was quoted as saying.
Russia abstained from a vote on a UN Security Council resolution in March that opened the way for air strikes on Qadhafi regime targets in Libya but has since criticized the scale and intent of the NATO-led Western campaign.
It has been involved in attempts to mediate between the rebels controlling the east of the country and the Kadhafi's regime in Tripoli.
Qadhafi, meanwhile, has sent an envoy to Caracas carrying a letter for his ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the Latin American leader said on Monday, without revealing the contents.
"The envoy brought a letter for me. That is good, the world needs to know about this," said Chavez, who has consistently denounced NATO strikes in Libya as a Western oil grab.
Chavez called the rebels "terrorists" and called on other countries to cut ties with the rebel National Transitional Council.
"Not only do we refuse to recognize the pantomime that is the Transitional Council…We say that European and other countries have recognized a group of terrorists…and given them legitimacy," he said.
He went on to say that such recognition "destroys the foundation of international law" because it would pave the way for the elevation of other opposition groups.
"It's very dangerous, and it could happen to all kinds of presidents. Tomorrow it could be any of us…This cannot be tolerated."
On 15 July Western and regional powers designated the Benghazi-based NTC as the country's legitimate rulers, a move that gives them access to vital funds.
The United States, which in June declared the NTC "the legitimate interlocutor" of the Libyan people, said Venezuela should join the international community in pressing Qadhafi to step down.
