As Ramadan approaches, Libyan rebels worry about mounting odds

Rebels battling Moammar Gaddafi’s forces in Libya’s western tiffany pendants mountains fear that supply shortages and other hurdles could prevent them from making major headway before fighting is likely to slow for Ramadan next month.

Rebel leaders say that limited fuel, water and food could take a toll on the fighting force as temperatures soar in the arid mountain ridge where the rebels have been slowly but steadily gaining ground on troops loyal to Gaddafi.

“It will be more difficult for us,” Col. Juma Ibrahim, a senior rebel commander, said of the period of religious observance during which many Muslims fast from dawn to dusk. Ramadan begins toward the start of August.

Even as the rebels look to sustain their momentum after a series of mountain victories, there are few signs that the tide is shifting definitively against Gaddafi and his troops.

Fighting on two major fronts in the east remains largely deadlocked, with neither side able to mount continued, large-scale advances. And Gaddafi remains in control of large swaths of the country, including stronghold Tripoli and a key corridor east of the capital that is a vital conduit for supplies.

“Most people are thinking only about weapons tiffany bracelets,” said Ibrahim, a Libyan air force pilot who defected and is one of the senior rebel commanders in the Nafusa Mountains. “But we should be thinking about everything: water, food, shoes, clothes, equipment.”

Ibrahim said Islam permits fighters to forgo fasting during Ramadan in times of war, but he said rebel leaders hope to at least make bold strides before the end of the month.

“We don’t want to be fighting during Ramadan,” he said in a recent interview in the rebel military command center in Zintan, which has become a garrison town. “We’re trying very hard to finish” the march toward Tripoli before the end of the month.

Gaddafi’s government appears intent on holding on to Gharyan, the last mountain town that sits on a major highway to Tripoli. Government minders took Western journalists to the city Sunday in an effort to show that support for Gaddafi remained strong there.

But the Associated Press reported that graffiti in Gharyan had been painted over, apparently to cover anti-Gaddafi slogans, though phrases such as “Libya free” remained visible.

Although mountain rebels benefit from knowing the terrain better than their enemy, many of the squads are poorly equipped and trained. Fighters commonly barrel into battle in the back of pickup trucks, some carrying century-old rifles.

“We don’t have helmets or body armor,” said rebel fighter Hussein Muhammad, 30, a former soldier in the Libyan army. “Many haven’t had any training. These are students, doctors, engineers and civilians.”

Having wrested control of the village of al-Qualish last week, the rebels are gearing up for battles for Asabiah, the next town en route tiffany key rings to Tripoli, and then Gharyan. Controlling the latter would constitute an important victory because it would choke off one of the two gateways that Gaddafi’s military uses to resupply forces in Tripoli.