Tripoli: Libyan revolutionaries backed by NATO were on the outskirts of Muammar Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte on Monday as they closed in from east and west for the final big battle for full control of Libya.
Fierce fighting also raged in the west of the country as revolutionaries trying to wrest control of the region from Gaddafi's forces said they had fallen into an ambush in a town southwest of Zuwarah.
Revolutionaries moved to within 30 kilometres (18 miles) of Sirte from the west and captured Bin Jawad 100 kilometres to the east, the revolutionaries' commander in Misrata, Mohammed al-Fortiya, told Agencies.
"We took Bin Jawad today" on the eastern front, and "the thwar (rebel fighters) from Misrata are 30 kilometres from Sirte" in the west, Fortiya said.
Revolutionaries pushing west from the oil hub of Ras Lanuf had been stuck for four days outside Bin Jawad, a key town on the coast road of the Gulf of Sirte, as Gaddafi's forces kept up a defiant resistance.
Although Gaddafi's whereabouts remain a mystery, there is widespread speculation that he is holed up in Sirte, 360 kilometres east of Tripoli, among tribal supporters there.
"We are negotiating with the tribes for Sirte's peaceful surrender," Fortiya said, adding that only tribal leaders were involved, and that to his knowledge no direct contact had been made with Gaddafi himself.
