Libya Rebels Report Street-to-Street Fighting in Brega

The battle for the oil town of Brega switched from the desert to intense street fighting in the town's northeast on Sunday, as veteran Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi vowed never to quit and fresh blasts rocked Tripoli.

Rebel forces re-entered Brega -- putting them within sight of a major strategic victory -- but said they had not yet managed to wrest control of the town from Gadhafi's troops, who have held it since April.

"Some small groups have made it inside, but we do not control the whole (town) yet," said Mohammed Zawi, a spokesman for the rebel forces.

He also dismissed rumors that Gadhafi troops had abandoned the town altogether. "It is now close fighting," he said, indicating a new phase in the four-day rebel campaign.

Until now heavy artillery had set the tenor of the battle, but mortars and rockets appear to have given way to heavy machine guns -- a more useful weapon for fighting at closer quarters.

But that did little to stem the bloodshed.

Some 13 rebel fighters have now been killed and almost 200 wounded since the battle for Brega began on Thursday.

In Brussels, a NATO statement said its forces were monitoring "the dynamic situation across the country, including around Brega."

Nestled on the Gulf of Sirte, Brega is made up of three areas, a residential area in the east, a major oil facility in the west and an old town in between.

A small rebel force had entered Brega from the northeast late on Friday, before pulling back for NATO air strikes and for fellow fighters to the south to beat back Gadhafi's troops.

After a series of military gains were washed away by hasty and badly coordinated advances, rebel commanders said they are anxious to make sure they have a unified offensive line before their final push.

NATO's strikes continued on Saturday, with the alliance hitting a tank, five armed vehicles and two rocket launchers in the Brega area.

A series of blasts rocked Tripoli on Sunday after Gadhafi vowed never to go into exile, with at least 13 explosions heard before and just after 01:00 am (2300 GMT Saturday).

The NATO statement in Brussels said warplanes had hit "a large military vehicle storage area in Tajura, 30 kilometers east of Tripoli.

"The military facility consisted of several substantial warehouses, containing various military vehicles including battle tanks, armored personnel carriers and ammunition," it said.

"This facility was clearly militarized for the purpose of supporting pro-Gadhafi forces and striking it has further degraded the regime's capacity to launch attacks against civilians."

Libyan state television reported that "the colonialist crusader aggressor" had raided civilian and military sites in the Ain Zara district and in Tajura.

The wave of blasts came just hours after Gadhafi gave a defiant speech.

"They are asking me to leave. That's a laugh. I will never leave the land of my ancestors or the people who have sacrificed themselves for me," he said in a loudspeaker address to supporters in Zawiyah, west of the capital.

"These rats have taken our people hostage in Benghazi, Misrata and the western mountains, using them as human shields," Gadhafi said of the rebels' eastern stronghold and their two enclaves in the mainly government-held west.

"Five million armed Libyans will march on them and liberate the occupied towns as soon as the order is given."

Southwest of the capital, rebel fighters exchanged rocket and machine-gun fire with Gadhafi's forces early on Sunday both in the Nafusa Mountains and in the plains below around Bir Ayad, a key junction on the road to Tripoli, AFP correspondents reported.

The rebels' senior commander for the region, Mokhtar Farnana, said they were consolidating their grip on the territory already held for fear of a loyalist counter-attack.

"The most important thing is to keep hold of the territory we have captured and to make it safe before making further attacks," Farnana told AFP.