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The Free Libya forces centered at Benghazi are turning out to have a vivid political imagination.

For instance, they are training female soldiers for the fight against the Qaddafi brigades:

Women guerrillas are not new in the Arab world, and women played important roles in the Algerian war of liberation (1954-1962) and in the Palestinian movements.

The pro-Free Libya newspaper Birniq is reporting that forces in the Western Mountain area have inflicted a decisive defeat on the Qaddafi brigades that had been besieging those cities. It says that Free Libya fighters put Qaddafi brigades to flight, capturing an astonishing quantity of weapons and chasing them away, and so liberated cities such as Zintan, Nalut and Rahibat. They say they are giving chase and continue to engage the Qaddafi brigades as the latter head north toward the Mediterranean. The towns of the Western Mountain region have been under siege for nearly three months, subjected to shelling by tanks, artillery and Grad rockets.

feb17voices Feb 17 voices at Twitter confirms,

‘LPC #Yefren: Rebels are currently clearing Yefren city center & the area of Zimla, checking for remaining Gaddafi forces #libya #feb17 ‘

and

‘ LPC #Jadu: Caller says, the road leading to #Yefren from the foot of the mountains is mostly clear, but there are still risks #libya #feb17

Deutsche Press Agentur also summarizes this report and says that the Free Libya forces in Benghazi say that they are preparing an assault on the capital of Tripoli. The Arabic report is here.

The next town the National Transitional Council would have to take is Brega, to the northwest of the current border of Ajdabiya between Free Libya territory and Qaddafi-held towns. Much of Libya’s oil wealth is in the Brega Basin. Perhaps in preparation for another push west by the TNC forces, NATO bombed a command and control center at Brega on Thursday, using Apache attack helicopters, according to Aljazeera Arabic.

Meanwhile, Major General Umar al-Hariri, now a commander of the Free Libya forces but originally one of the young officers who helped Qaddafi make his 1969 coup, has told a pan-Arab newspaper that he believes that 60% of Qaddafi’s arms have been destroyed by NATO. He also called Egypt a key ally of the revolutionaries. The USG Open Source Center translates the interview from al-Sharq Al-Awsat: