Libyan rebels are pushing towards embattled Muamma Gaddafi’s last bastion of Sirte, as they make some advances on the western front in a bid to fully control the country.
Libyan rebels are pushing towards embattled Muamma Gaddafi’s last bastion of Sirte, as they make some advances 
on the western front in a bid to fully control the country.
Fighters moved to within 30 kilometers of Sirte, hometown of the elusive leader, from the west and captured Bin Jawad to the east, the rebel commander in Misrata, Mohammed al-Fortiya, told AFP news agency.
"We took Bin Jawad today" on the eastern front, and "the rebels from Misrata are 30 kilometers from Sirte" in the west, Fortiya said.
Rebels pushing west from the oil hub of Ras Lanuf had been stuck for four days outside Bin Jawad, a key town on the coast road of the Gulf of Sirte, as Gaddafi’s forces kept up a defiant resistance.
GADDAFI’S WHEREABOUTS
Although the whereabouts of Gaddafi are still unknown, there is widespread speculation that he is holed up in Sirte, 360 kilometers east of Tripoli, among tribal supporters there. He is believed to be in his hometown after rebel fighters smashed his forces in Tripoli and seized his Bab al-Aziziya stronghold.
For his part, Head of National Transitional Council (NTC), Mustafa Abdul Jalil, has promised that Gaddafi and his senior aides would be given a fair trial if they surrendered.
"We call on Muammar Gaddafi and his associates to surrender so we can protect them and spare them illegal execution," he said in Benghazi. "We guarantee them a fair trial, whatever their position."
The rebels have offered a $1.7 million-dollar reward for Gaddafi’s capture, dead or alive.
NEGOTIATIONS
On the other hand, Fortiva said there were negotiations taking place with tribes in sirte.
"We are negotiating with the tribes for Sirte's peaceful surrender," the commander said, adding that only tribal leaders were involved, and that to his knowledge no direct contact had been made with Gaddafi himself.
However a spokesman for the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC), Mahmud Shammam, warned that negotiations for Sirte's peaceful handover would not be open-ended.
"The negotiations will not go on forever," he said. "The talks are still going on... We would like to unify Libya very quickly."
Meanwhile, fierce fighting also raged in the west of the country as rebels trying to wrest control of the region from Gaddafi’s forces said they had fallen into an ambush in a town southwest of Zuwarah.
