Nafusa Mountains

Fighting broke out on two fronts Saturday in Libya, as rebels tried to gain ground against entrenched government forces in the western mountains and the eastern desert. The two sides battled outside a small town in the Nafusa Mountains in the west, where rebels are seeking to cut a key supply route used by Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi's forces, and near the eastern oil city of Port Brega. Outside Port Brega, a strategic petrochemical hub, rebels have mounted yet another assault on government forces that have held the city since March 31. The rebels have been slowed by hundreds of land mines placed by Kadafi forces along the eastern approaches to Port Brega, about 140 miles southwest of Benghazi, the de facto rebel capital.

Trash piles up on the streets, grocery shelves are nearly bare, water is in short supply and major battles loom before the war is won. But a prevalent mood of optimism and a sense of new possibilities seem to prevail in Libya's battered capital almost two weeks after its liberation from Moammar Kadafi's longtime rule. "Now we have a chance to do something right," said Shaban Fituri, 54, an engineer who was buying fresh fish near the port on Monday. "For too long, we were all slaves on Kadafi's farm.

A top-ranking rebel government official Sunday dismissed a supposed offer by Moammar Kadafi to negotiate a transition, insisting that the country's long-time ruler should turn himself in. The Associated Press reported that Musa Ibrahim, a spokesman for Kadafi's all but toppled government, had called its New York office to offer talks on a "transfer of power," saying the leader's son Saadi would conduct the negotiations. He said Kadafi remained in Libya but did not specify where. A top official of the National Transitional Council rejected the offer.

Rebel leaders Sunday dismissed a purported offer by Moammar Kadafi to negotiate a transition in government, insisting that Libya's longtime ruler turn himself in. Musa Ibrahim, a spokesman for Kadafi's toppled government, called the Associated Press' New York headquarters to offer talks on a "transfer of power," saying the leader's son Saadi would conduct the negotiations. He said Kadafi remained in Libya but did not specify where. But a top official of the Transitional National Council rejected the offer.

The revolt against Moammar Kadafi was born in the eastern city of Benghazi, long a caldron of discontent with the autocratic ruler. The uprising gained traction during bloody spring battles in coastal Misurata, Libya's third-largest city, where residents barricaded streets with shipping containers in ferocious urban warfare. But it is a rebel thrust from the west that may prove decisive in bringing an end to Kadafi's more than four-decade reign. Photos: Conflict in Libya The push by guerrilla fighters from Libya's isolated Berber highlands, the rugged Nafusa Mountains near the Tunisian border, was one front too many for Kadafi's depleted and sometimes demoralized forces.

They are crossing the word "Jamahiriya" from their license plates, erasing a dictator's farcical vision of a "republic ruled by the masses. " They are covering their green passport covers with the red, black and green flag of Libya before a young colonel named Moammar Kadafi came to power more than four decades ago. And in the process, they are getting back their pride. After being defined for decades by one eccentric man, Libyans may be on the verge of throwing off their leader, like their neighbors in Egypt and Tunisia to the east and west did before them.

Moammar Kadafi's frontline soldiers are well-fed and well-supplied, even down to the occasional single-serving bottle of Jim Beam. And many of his troops remain convinced that they are battling foreign extremists seeking to take over Libya. But some recently captured soldiers are haunted by doubts. "We talk about whether the war is right," said a prisoner from a town near the coastal city of Zawiya who was wounded in the frontline town of Kikla in the western mountains of Libya.

He is a soft-spoken 22-year-old with a massive Belgian machine gun. " Allahu akbar! " Radwan Othman cries out as he opens fire in response to a barrage of rockets fired by Moammar Kadafi's troops less than two miles across the valley. Afterward he goes silent, staring into space with glazed eyes. He doesn't talk much, and his friends at this front-line position at the far eastern edge of rebel-controlled territory in the Nafusa Mountains worry about him. Until the uprising against Kadafi's 42-year rule began in February, Othman sold women's clothes at a shop in Tripoli and had never handled a gun in his life.

Rebel leaders Sunday dismissed a purported offer by Moammar Kadafi to negotiate a transition in government, insisting that Libya's longtime ruler turn himself in. Musa Ibrahim, a spokesman for Kadafi's toppled government, called the Associated Press' New York headquarters to offer talks on a "transfer of power," saying the leader's son Saadi would conduct the negotiations. He said Kadafi remained in Libya but did not specify where. But a top official of the Transitional National Council rejected the offer.

Before the Libyan uprising this year, Salah, a proud Arab, never would have approved if his sister had decided to marry a Berber, a long-oppressed ethnic group populating large parts of western Libya and the rest of North Africa. But the battle against Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi's rule has fused the destinies of the two people, especially in the Nafusa Mountains where Arab and Berber towns rely on one another for survival. "There is one particular Berber who I got to know after the revolution," said Salah, who asked that his last name not be published because of the sensitivity of the issue.

A top-ranking rebel government official Sunday dismissed a supposed offer by Moammar Kadafi to negotiate a transition, insisting that the country's long-time ruler should turn himself in. The Associated Press reported that Musa Ibrahim, a spokesman for Kadafi's all but toppled government, had called its New York office to offer talks on a "transfer of power," saying the leader's son Saadi would conduct the negotiations. He said Kadafi remained in Libya but did not specify where. A top official of the National Transitional Council rejected the offer.

As rebel fighters root out remnants of Moammar Kadafi's forces, ad hoc neighborhood councils that make their own rules are imposing the only semblance of order on the streets of Tripoli and enforcing it at hundreds of checkpoints, many staffed by heavily armed teenagers. They are being asked now to abandon that sudden rush of power and hand authority to a group of men they don't know well. Libya's opposition leadership, the Transitional National Council, says its top figures will arrive within days to take control of an unruly capital somewhat suspicious of its motives but largely willing to give it the benefit of the doubt.

They are crossing the word "Jamahiriya" from their license plates, erasing a dictator's farcical vision of a "republic ruled by the masses. " They are covering their green passport covers with the red, black and green flag of Libya before a young colonel named Moammar Kadafi came to power more than four decades ago. And in the process, they are getting back their pride. After being defined for decades by one eccentric man, Libyans may be on the verge of throwing off their leader, like their neighbors in Egypt and Tunisia to the east and west did before them.

The revolt against Moammar Kadafi was born in the eastern city of Benghazi, long a caldron of discontent with the autocratic ruler. The uprising gained traction during bloody spring battles in coastal Misurata, Libya's third-largest city, where residents barricaded streets with shipping containers in ferocious urban warfare. But it is a rebel thrust from the west that may prove decisive in bringing an end to Kadafi's more than four-decade reign. Photos: Conflict in Libya The push by guerrilla fighters from Libya's isolated Berber highlands, the rugged Nafusa Mountains near the Tunisian border, was one front too many for Kadafi's depleted and sometimes demoralized forces.

Moammar Kadafi's frontline soldiers are well-fed and well-supplied, even down to the occasional single-serving bottle of Jim Beam. And many of his troops remain convinced that they are battling foreign extremists seeking to take over Libya. But some recently captured soldiers are haunted by doubts. "We talk about whether the war is right," said a prisoner from a town near the coastal city of Zawiya who was wounded in the frontline town of Kikla in the western mountains of Libya.

Fighting broke out on two fronts Saturday in Libya, as rebels tried to gain ground against entrenched government forces in the western mountains and the eastern desert. The two sides battled outside a small town in the Nafusa Mountains in the west, where rebels are seeking to cut a key supply route used by Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi's forces, and near the eastern oil city of Port Brega. Outside Port Brega, a strategic petrochemical hub, rebels have mounted yet another assault on government forces that have held the city since March 31. The rebels have been slowed by hundreds of land mines placed by Kadafi forces along the eastern approaches to Port Brega, about 140 miles southwest of Benghazi, the de facto rebel capital.

As rebel fighters root out remnants of Moammar Kadafi's forces, ad hoc neighborhood councils that make their own rules are imposing the only semblance of order on the streets of Tripoli and enforcing it at hundreds of checkpoints, many staffed by heavily armed teenagers. They are being asked now to abandon that sudden rush of power and hand authority to a group of men they don't know well. Libya's opposition leadership, the Transitional National Council, says its top figures will arrive within days to take control of an unruly capital somewhat suspicious of its motives but largely willing to give it the benefit of the doubt.

Trash piles up on the streets, grocery shelves are nearly bare, water is in short supply and major battles loom before the war is won. But a prevalent mood of optimism and a sense of new possibilities seem to prevail in Libya's battered capital almost two weeks after its liberation from Moammar Kadafi's longtime rule. "Now we have a chance to do something right," said Shaban Fituri, 54, an engineer who was buying fresh fish near the port on Monday. "For too long, we were all slaves on Kadafi's farm.

Before the Libyan uprising this year, Salah, a proud Arab, never would have approved if his sister had decided to marry a Berber, a long-oppressed ethnic group populating large parts of western Libya and the rest of North Africa. But the battle against Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi's rule has fused the destinies of the two people, especially in the Nafusa Mountains where Arab and Berber towns rely on one another for survival. "There is one particular Berber who I got to know after the revolution," said Salah, who asked that his last name not be published because of the sensitivity of the issue.