TRIPOLI—Fighting erupted in Tripoli late Saturday as the rebels closed in on the capital by claiming a third key city in 24 hours and predicted Moammar Gadhafi’s 42-year-old rule was on its last legs.
Blasts and gunfire rocked Tripoli after the break of the dawn-to-dusk fast of Ramadan and witnesses reported fighting in the eastern neighbourhoods of Soug Jomaa and Arada.
An official queried by reporters was unable to confirm the fighting, which came after news that Gadhafi’s former right-hand man had fled to Italy and rebel claims that victory was within reach, six months after launching their insurgency.
“We have contacts with people from the inner circle of Gadhafi,” said the chairman of the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC). “All evidence (shows) that the end is very near, with God’s grace.”
Abdel Jalil was speaking to reporters as a flurry of rumours suggested that Gadhafi was preparing to flee Libya.
“I expect a catastrophic end for him and his inner circle, and I expect that he will a create a situation within Tripoli. I hope my expectation is wrong,” Abdel Jalil said, before the latest fighting in the capital.
“That would be a good thing that will end the bloodshed and help us avoid material costs. But I do not expect that he will do that,” Abdel Jalil added.
Rebels were jubilant after claiming to have captured the strategic eastern oil hub of Brega, a day after saying they had seized Zawiyah and Zliten, two other key towns.
However, rebel Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani said retreating Gadhafi forces were shelling the city’s industrial zone on Saturday and that his men had pulled back to its eastern edge to avoid unnecessary casualties and property damage.
Meanwhile, the rebels said former premier Abdessalam Jalloud, who fell out of favor with the Libyan strongman in the mid-1990s but remains a popular figure, had defected and joined their ranks.
Yet both they and the regime downplayed the significance of his departure, after he reportedly flew to Italy from neighboring Tunisia with his family.
The official JANA news agency simply said “Jalloud had remained away from politics out of his own free will, and spent most of his time abroad for (medical) care for heart disease.”
He was among the officers who grabbed power with Gadhafi in 1969 and was long considered the regime’s second-in-command before being gradually sidelined in the 1990s.
Prime minister during the 1970s, he retired from politics following his dispute with Gadhafi and lived under hour arrest.
On the ground, a top-ranking rebel official said of Brega, “the industrial zone is under our control; all Brega is now under our control.”
In Zawiyah, families were fleeing the battle-scarred city in cars and pickups loaded with personal possessions, a day after the rebels claimed it had fallen as they advanced on Tripoli from the west.
Queues of cars hundreds of metres long snaked out of petrol stations after rebels decided to distribute fuel from the nearby refinery for free.
The refinery is the only source of fuel to Tripoli, and could leave it without critical supplies.
At the start of the main road heading south, rebels set up a checkpoint with a list of names of informants whom they accused of having helped Gadhafi’s fighters in their now-lost battle for the city.
Insurgents also said they seized Zliten from Gadhafi’s forces, hours after saying they were in the town’s centre, 150 kilometers (93 miles) east of Tripoli.
Rebels have been seeking to sever Tripoli’s supply lines from Tunisia to the west and to Gadhafi’s home town of Sirte in the east, hoping to cut off the capital, prompt defections and spark an uprising inside Tripoli.
Meanwhile, a Tunisian defense official said Tunisian troops clashed with a group of armed Libyans overnight in the country’s southwest.
An army patrol came under fire from men travelling in several 4X4 vehicles with Libyan registration plates in the Douz region, the official said.
No one was caught and the attackers were still being hunted Saturday by ground and air forces, the official said, adding there were no casualties on the Tunisian side.
With the rebels vowing to take Tripoli before the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan ends in late August, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini urged the population of the capital to rise up against Gadhafi.
“We hope the people of Tripoli… understand the regime has harmed its own people and will therefore join a process of political change to cut off room for maneuver for Gadhafi’s regime,” Frattini said.
Meanwhile, the International Organization for Migration said it was drawing up plans to evacuate thousands of migrants stranded in Tripoli because exit points have been cut off after a spate of rebel successes.
“There are already thousands of Egyptians who are ready for evacuation now, and what we are hearing is that every day there are more and more requests,” IOM spokeswoman Jemini Pandya said.
For its part, the International Committee of the Red Cross reported a “rapid deterioration in the humanitarian situation” in several Libyan towns.