Rebels push to cut off Gaddafi

Sky News reports the anti-Gaddafi forces as saying they want to close off supply routes from the south and hope to link up with rebel elements in the town of Zawiyha. But it is clear that government and its militia are preparing to defend Gharyan as women’s militia groups are being trained to use weapons.

The whole are is being flooded with government-supplied guns.

According to a Sky News correspondent, in the court yard of a medical institute, a group of women practised gun drills in front of foreign media bussed in from Tripoli. The women had volunteered to form the militia to defend their homes and their children.

“We will die for our country,” one woman reportedly said. “We are not scared of the rebels. We will fight if we have to but we will also negotiate a solution to all this. But our leader [Gaddafi] must stay.”