Libyan rebels launch push on oil town amid confusion over fate of Gaddafi's son, Khamis

LIBYAN rebels yesterday said they had launched a major push toward the coastal oil town of Brega, but are advancing slowly because troops loyal to Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi have mined approaches to the town.

Fighting on the eastern front of the civil war, which has ebbed backwards and forwards over past months, has been bogged down for weeks on the fringes of Brega, southwest of the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

"There's a big movement on all fronts around Brega, we are attacking from three sides," said rebel spokesman Mohammad Zawawi.

He said rebel forces were in sight of a residential area of Brega and believed they could take the town.

"It could be very soon, but we don't want to lose anybody so we're moving slowly but surely," he said. Libyan rebels also say that their forces are trying to capture the key coastal town of Zawiyah before heading on to the Libyan capital, Tripoli.

The rebels hope to reach Tripoli before the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Earlier, the rebel commander said his forces had unconfirmed reports that a Nato airstrike had destroyed a caravan of camels carrying weapons from neighbouring Chad.

Abdullah Aitha, who commands rebels fighting in the south-eastern Kufra region, said the caravan was made up of hundreds of camels and was carrying heavy-calibre machine guns, mortars and ammunition.

He said the airstrike came last night in a desert 62 miles from the Chad border as the caravan was heading for the city of Sebha, 400 miles south of Tripoli.

Sebha is a key Gaddafi stronghold deep in the country's south-western deserts from where the Libyan leader draws many of his troops.

"The camels are totally burned and the weapons are all destroyed," Mr Aitha said.

On Friday, a rebel commander said his forces had also received unconfirmed reports that Gaddafi's youngest son had been killed in a Nato air strike on the western town of Zlitan.

Mohammed al-Rijali in the rebel's de facto capital of Benghazi said Khamis Gaddafi was among 32 troops killed in the Nato strike on a government operations centre in the town of Zlitan.

But in Tripoli, deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaim said Khamis was alive and had spoken to Libyan government officials to confirm he had not been killed.

"He is OK and alive, and they (reports of his death] are just lies," Kaim said.

He said the rebels spread reports of Khamis's death to "distract attention" from the killing, late last month, of rebel military chief General Abdel Fattah Younes, Libya's former interior minister.

The rebel leadership has insisted Younes's assassination was the work of the Gaddafi regime, but several witnesses have said he was killed by fellow rebels. The killing has fuelled concerns about unity within the rebel movement nearly six months after the revolt began.