Libyan rebels eye Gaddafi supply lines

Libyan rebels have defeated Muammar Gaddafi loyalists at a border crossing with Tunisia, seizing control of a key checkpoint that could open supply routes into the country.
Rebel forces raised their flag late on Friday on the Ras Ajdir border post, the primary crossing between Libya and Tunisia, in a win that will allow them to bring in supplies and aid to the capital, Tripoli.
A Tunisian official said loyalists fled as more than 100 rebels arrived. "There were not any real clashes; the loyalists took off and the rebels' flag was raised at the border post," the AFP news agency quoted the official as saying.
Al Jazeera's Sue Turton, reporting from Tripoli on Saturday, said the capture was an "incredibly important" gain for the rebels.
"It shows that they are managing to get rid of what is left of Gaddafi troops in that area, but more importantly it opens a supply route now totally across from the west into Tripoli," she said.
In the capital, rebels were consolidating their control on Saturday, but the United Nations said security remained a key concern, with fears of reprisal attacks in a country now awash with small arms.
A street-by-street rebel onslaught has pushed most of the remnants of Gaddafi’s army to the southern outskirts of Tripoli, Al Jazeera's correspondents reported, but his forces were still resisting in other areas of the country.
Al Jazeera's Turton said the rebels' main focus now in central Tripoli is to clear out any pro-Gaddafi loyalists that may still be hiding.
"There is obviously still tension southeast of the city; down near the airport they are still being bombed by Gaddafi loyalists further out east from the city," she said.
"The rebels are telling us from that eastern position where they are sniping and where they are still sending artillery all the way back to Saba in central Libya [that] there is a route all the way back to that area, which we know is still really held by Gaddafi's troops."
Elsewhere in Libya, rebels clashed with Gaddafi loyalists over control of Sirte, Gaddafi's hometown.
Mustafa Abdel Jalil, chairman of the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC), said at a news conference on Saturday that rebel commanders were negotiating with Gaddafi loyalists to try to persuade them to surrender control over the city.
NATO warplanes struck a large bunker in Sirte on Friday, paving the way for a rebel advance