Forces loyal to Libyan leader Moamar Gaddafi have been attacking the town of Ajdabiya, the last major population centre before the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

Rebel fighters in Ajdabiya said four shells had hit west of the town while a former officer who defected from Mr Gaddafi’s air force said there had been air strikes.

The town is crucial to allowing government forces to besiege the rebels in Benghazi by cutting off their lifeline to the east and the Egyptian border.

Two key highways run out of Ajdabiya; one goes along the coast to Benghazi, and the other cuts across the desert to Tobruk.

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Muammar Qaddafi’s forces swept rebels from one of their final strongholds with hours of searing waves of strikes from warships, tanks and warplanes on Sunday but the insurgents claimed that they moved back in after nightfall.

One rebel said that after their initial defeat, opposition forces destroyed armored vehicles and captured dozens of fighters from Qaddafi’s elite Khamis Brigade in the oil town of Brega, driving others back into the town’s airport.

Another opposition fighter told The Associated Press by telephone that celebrations had broken out in the nearby city of Ajdabiya, and celebratory gunfire, honking and shouting could be heard in the background.

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A crack Libyan brigade commanded by Muammar Gadhafi’s son Khamis was slowed by a mutiny as it advanced on Misrata on Saturday, with 32 soldiers joining the rebels holding the city, a rebel there said.

One defector was a general, said the rebel named Mohammed. The feared 32nd Brigade tried but failed earlier in the day to take Misrata, the last major rebel holdout in western Libya.

Stalled about 10-15 km south of the city, the brigade broke out in a fire-fight after dozens of troops balked at the idea of killing innocent civilians in the impending attack, rebel spokesman Gamal added.

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Rebel fighters have attacked the capital of South Sudan’s Upper Nile state, the southern army has said.

The number of casualties is not known, but the attack on Saturday in Malakal, one of the south’s three main
settlements, marked an escalation in a wave of clashes between the south’s army and rebel fighters.

The fighting has raised fears over the stability of the region in the countdown to its secession - due on July 9.

“There is fighting going on in Malakal. Militia have penetrated the town. They raided at night,” Philip Aguer, the southern army spokesman told the Reuters news agency.

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Libya’s revolutionary leadership has appealed for France and Britain to launch air strikes against an intensive assault by Muammar Gaddafi’s forces that has forced the rebel army to retreat towards its eastern stronghold of Benghazi.

The Provisional Transitional National Council said that calls by European leaders for Gaddafi to quit and the threat of more sanctions were not enough as the regime regains its footing after the initial shock of the popular uprising.

The revolutionaries fear that the hesitation by most European states and the US to take direct action is providing a breathing space for Gaddafi to continue his attempts to crush the uprising in areas around Tripoli and to move toward Benghazi.

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A spokesman of insurgents, Mohammed al-Mughrabi, says the government troups disembarked near hotel ‘Fadeel’ in Ras Lanuf, where fights would be going on. “Four boats have landed with 50 men aboard each.

We are fighting against them”, says him. Already yesterday soldiers of Gaddafi’s regime have bombed rebel positions in Ras Lanuf and in the other oil port of Brega.

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A Libyan insurgent said rebels had retaken the heart of the closest city to the capital from forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi on Wednesday evening in some of the fiercest fighting in almost three weeks of clashes.

Zawiya appeared to change hands twice during the day as Gaddafi tried to crush the uprising against him by bombarding the western town and the frontlines of the rebel-held east of the country.

“Thanks to Allah we are sitting in the square now,” the fighter, who gave his name as Ibrahim, said by telephone after earlier reporting his forces had pulled back from the square.

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