"Rebels launched an offensive on Al-Ghazaya on Wednesday," a military source told an AFP correspondent in Zintan, near Nalut. Other military and medical sources also reported the offensive.

Qadhafi's forces hold Ghazaya and use it as a base to bombard the rebel-held town of Nalut and rebels in the frontier region bordering Tunisia. Ghazaya lies about 12 kilometres from the border.

For the past few days, Qadhafi forces have being firing Grad rockets against the rebels in Nalut, some 230 kilometres west of the Libyan capital.

The mountainous Nafusa region has seen some of the fiercest fighting between rebel forces and those loyal to Qadhafi.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011