Rebels say they are attacking Tripoli

TRIPOLI, Libya -- Libyan rebels said they launched their first attack on Tripoli in coordination with NATO late yesterday, 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.

Meanwhile, Tunisia's Foreign Ministry has recognized the Libyan rebels' National Transitional Council as the sole legitimate representative of the Libyan people, the official Tunisian TAP news agency reported Saturday. The move represents a major shift in policy for Libya's neighbor to the west, which has remained neutral throughout the conflict.

TAP also reported Gadhafi's former No. 2, Abdel-Salam Jalloud, left a Tunisian island for Italy after apparently defecting.

A couple of hours after the rebels said they had attacked Tripoli, state television ran what appeared to be a live audio message by Gadhafi. He sounded like he was calling the message in on a poor phone line that crackled at times. He announced the time and date twice to prove that he was speaking live.

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

"Is this democracy? I think not," Gadhafi said. Calling himself the "father of Libya," he urged his followers to "go forward, go forward" -- perhaps a battle cry as the battle for the capital had begun.

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 rebels did indeed attack Tripoli, it would be the first time in the 6-month-old uprising.

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.

Gadhafi 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 Gadhafi's forces and drove them out in a major victory yesterday 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 launched Operation Mermaid -- a nickname for Tripoli. He also said the assault was coordinated with NATO. With McClatchy Newspapers