Libyan rebels blasts and rocks Tripoli

Libyan rebels said they launched their first attack on Tripoli in coordination with Nato late Saturday and Associated Press reporters heard unusually heavy gunfire and explosions in the capital. . The fighting erupted just hours after opposition fighters captured the key city of Zawiya nearby.

Gunbattles and mortar rounds were heard clearly at the hotel where foreign correspondents stay in Tripoli. Nato aircraft made heavy bombing runs after nightfall, with loud explosions booming across the city.

"We planned this operation with Nato, our Arab associates and our rebel fighters in Tripoli with commanders in Benghazi," Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, the head of the rebel leadership council, told the Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera. Benghazi, hundreds of miles east of Tripoli, is the rebels' de facto capital.

A couple hours after the rebels said they had attacked Tripoli, state television ran what appeared to be a live audio message by Gaddafi. He did not appear on television but sounded like he was calling the message in on a poor phone line which crackled at times. He announced the time and date twice to prove that he was speaking live.

Gaddafi condemned the rebels as traitors and "vermin" who are tearing Libya apart and said they were being chased from city to city — a mirror image of reality as reported by AFP.

"Libyans wanted to enjoy a peaceful Ramadan," he said. "Instead they have been made into refugees. What are we? Palestinians?"

He urged his supporters to "march by the millions" and end a months-long uprising which he termed a "masquerade", as rebel forces closed in on Tripoli.

Gaddafi accused French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country is helping to lead Nato-coordinated air strikes on the strongman's military assets, of recruiting the rebels as "agents" to steal Libya's vast oil wealth.

Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim appeared on Libyan television to deny there was an uprising in Tripoli. But he acknowledged that there was some kind of unusual activity.

"Sure there were some armed militants who escaped into some neighborhoods and there were some scuffles, but we dealt with it within a half hour and it is now calm," he said.

The claims from both sides could not immediately be independently verified.

If the rebel did indeed attack Tripoli, it would be the first time in the 6-month-old uprising. The rebels made early gains in the revolt, capturing most of the east of the country and rising up in a few other major cities such as Zawiya and Misrata. But Gaddafi's forces fought back and until a week ago, the civil war had been mired in a stalemate.

Last weekend, rebels from the western mountains near the border with Tunisia made a dramatic advance into Zawiya, just 30 miles west of Tripoli, and captured parts of the city.

Gaddafi appeared increasingly isolated as the fighters advanced closer to Tripoli, a metropolis of 2 million people, from the west, south and east and gained control of major supply roads into the capital.

After hard-fought battles for a week in Zawiya, the rebels finally wrested the city's oil refinery, central square and hospital from Gaddafi's forces and drove them out in a major victory on Saturday that clearly swung momentum in their favor.

Hours later, the attack on Tripoli was claimed. Col. Fadlallah Haroun, a military commander in Benghazi, said the battles marked the beginning of Operation Mermaid — a nickname for Tripoli. He also said the assault was coordinated with Nato. Haroun told the AP that weapons were assembled and sent by tugboats to Tripoli on Friday night.

In Benghazi, there were thousands celebrating in the main city square, shooting fireworks and guns into the air, and waving the rebel tricolor flag.

Rebels also claimed that they captured the city of Zlitan, 90 miles (140 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli, after more than two months of fighting.

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