The Nafusa Mountains campaign was a series of battles in the Libyan Civil War, fought between loyalist pro-Gaddafi forces and rebel anti-Gaddafi forces in the Nafusa Mountains and, at a later period, in the surrounding plains of western Libya. The mountain range is of strategic importance due to its close proximity to Tripoli, the Libyan capital. Along with the city of Misrata, the Nafusa Mountains region was one of the major rebel strongholds in the Tripolitania region of the country.
Campaign
Loyalists retake Gharyan, rebels surrounded
On 1 March, loyalist forces started offensive operations south of Tripoli with the aim of retaking territory lost in previous days to the rebels. Their first target was the city of Gharyan.
Gharyan was seen as a strategic town, because it was the largest in the Nafusa Mountains, a direct gateway to the Jabal al Gharbi District from Tripoli and was part of the defence ring loyalist forces were establishing around the capital.
During the night between the 1 and 2 March, loyalist forces came into the town, under the cover of darkness. On the morning of 2 March, the rebels realised that the town was overrun by government troops. Soldiers had a list of opposition members and started to round up all of the rebels in Gharyan. Gharyan had been retaken by the government, on the same day as the nearby city of Sabratha, located west of Tripoli.
As news of the retaking of Gharyan spread, the rebels found out that Gaddafi's forces were preparing an assault to retake Zintan, the first town in western Libya to throw off his rule. Around 40 trucks and armoured vehicles fitted with anti-aircraft guns were spotted 30 kilometers away heading to the city. Young people in Zintan took the fight to pro-Gaddafi forces, launching a series of "preventative attacks" on army barracks, checkpoints and other installations to gather weapons and equipment. At sunset, the city had been attacked three times and all repelled.
On 6 March, loyalist forces attempted another attack on Zintan which resulted in the deaths of 5–6 rebels and later rebels claimed that some 20 loyalist soldiers were killed. Government troops did not manage to enter the town. However, they had surrounded it and positioned mobile Grad rocket-launchers on the outskirts. By this point, government forces had also surrounded the towns of Yafran and Nalut.
On 18 March, rebel forces from Nalut attacked a government checkpoint on the outskirts of the town. Four government soldiers and one rebel were killed in the fighting and 18 loyalist soldiers were captured.
Zintan offensive stopped
On 21 March, the pro-Gaddafi forces launched an offensive against the city. By 22 March, loyalist troops were pushed back from the eastern outskirts of the town, but were still holding a foothold in the northern outskirts. As of 24 March, heavy shelling of Zintan by artillery and tank fire was ongoing. The rebels claimed they captured or destroyed several tanks, seized trucks loaded with 1,200 Grad missiles and fuel tanks, and captured five Gaddafi troops. During the offensive against Zintan, 16–21 people were killed in the town, eight of them rebels.
At the same time as the attack on Zintan started, there was fighting at Yafran in which nine people were killed.
Shelling of towns, intermittent skirmishes
On 1 April, after a week of a lull in fighting, loyalist troops were on the move again. Government firing of Grad rockets was hitting the western side of Zintan. Government troops had surrounded the town of Kikla, 60 kilometers east of Zintan, and were attacking another nearby town of Aquilla.
On 3 April, Yafran was shelled by loyalist artillery killing two people.
On 4 April, government troops captured the town of Kikla and started a rocket bombardment of Nalut.
On 5 April, Al Jazeera English reported that the rebels in Nalut and Zintan infiltrated Yafran and helped their allies there to fight against government forces. They were able to push back Gaddafi's forces from Yafran.
On 8 April, Al Jazeera English reported that NATO airstrikes struck weapons depots belonging to pro-Gaddafi forces located 15 kilometers southeast of Zintan. Residents heard 14 explosions and saw some of the buildings burning.
On 9 April, refugees from al-Galaa told Reuters that Gaddafi's forces have been burning water wells with petroleum and killing sheep, and promised to "rape all girls".
On 12 April, Al Jazeera reported that anti-Gaddafi forces were able to take Zintan's western gate. Alongside this they were also able to stop loyalist forces from taking the road leading from Nalut to Tunis.
On 14 April, Al Jazeera English reported that rebels had repelled loyalist forces in the al-Haraba district, west of Rihaibat, after some minor clashes. However, the towns in the area remained under siege.
On 15 April, eight rebels were killed and 11 wounded in heavy fighting near Yafran in which they also captured several loyalist soldiers. The rebels also claimed that NATO air-strikes had hit loyalist armored units in the vicinity of both Yafran and Zintan.
New loyalist offensive, rebel fight for supply line
On 17 April, a heavy artillery bombardment of all rebel-held areas in the Jabal al Gharbi District started and continued into the next day. The loyalist attack left 110 people dead, including both civilians and rebels, according to residents. Loyalist forces were reported by the rebels to be "within striking distance" of Jadu and Ar Rajban, but had been once again repelled from Zintan and Nalut.
The shelling continued on 19 April, with four more people killed in Nalut.
On 21 April, Al Jazeera reported that the opposition forces had seized the border crossing with Tunisia, Wazzin, forcing one hundred Gaddafi soldiers to retreat into Tunisia where they handed themselves in to Tunisian authorities. The rebels also claimed to have killed 15 soldiers and captured another 14 on the Libyan side of the border. However, all of the 100 soldiers returned from Tunisia into Libya the next day.
NATO reported that it conducted strikes against loyalist targets in the vicinity of Zintan on 22 April. Two tanks, two bunkers, and some buildings were claimed to have been hit.
On 23 April, rebels started to bring in supplies, through the border crossing at Wazzin, to the towns under siege. However, the same day it was reported that Yafran had been taken by loyalist forces.
On 24 April, a loyalist artillery barrage hit the border crossing at Wazzin in an attempt to recapture the town. Also, four people were killed and nine wounded when Grad rockets hit Zintan. The next day, two rebels were killed and three wounded in further fighting near Nalut in which the rebels claimed to have killed 45 loyalist soldiers and captured 17, although no independent sources could confirm the opposition's claims.
On 25 April, Voice of Russia reported that rebels were still resisting in Yafran in spite of the pro-Gaddafi forces advance into the town two days previously.
On 27 April, rebels claimed that loyalists fired at least 20 Grad rockets into the city centre of Zintan. Five houses were destroyed in the bombardment, which also damaged a local hospital and left three people injured. The Daily Telegraph reported that RAF warplanes under NATO command attacked loyalist vehicles in the region, striking a tank near Mizda and destroying a self-propelled gun near Yafran.
On 28 April, loyalist forces re-captured the Wazzin border crossing with Tunisia after a swift advance in which they pushed the rebels back over the border into Tunisia where the fighting continued on the edge of the Tunisian border town of Dehiba. State TV stated that several rebels were killed and others captured in the attack on the border post. Later during the day, the rebels attempted a counter-attack. Initially, they claimed to have re-taken the post. However, Reuters denied it later by confirming that the loyalists were still in full control. During the confusion when it was thought that the rebels had won scores of civilian vehicles attempted to re-enter Libya from Tunisia. But, they quickly turned back when they found Gaddafi's forces were still at the border crossing. Heavy fighting continued into the night, with rebels apparently massing for a renewed attack against the better-armed loyalists and during the evening the rebels once again claimed to have re-taken the crossing after they received reinforcements from Zintan. Still, this claim was also later found to be untrue.
The next morning, loyalist troops advanced from the crossing post of Wazzin in pursuit of the rebels, who had retreated onto Tunisian soil after a night of fighting, over the border and engaged them in the center of the town of Dehiba. Soon after that clashes between Gaddafi and Tunisian troops were reported, but the Tunisian news agency TAP said Tunisian forces only fired in the air and did not clash directly with the Libyans. The Tunisian military soon seized loyalist troops and led them back over the border. At the same time, the rebels claimed for a third time to have re-taken the border post which was apparently confirmed by an AFP news crew. However, after nightfall, Gaddafi's forces resumed their bombardment of the crossing in an apparent attempt to return and the government said it had regained control over the Libyan side of the border. Meanwhile, air strikes hit Gaddafi forces surrounding the town of Zintan.
On 1 May, a caller on Al Jazeera said that the city of Zintan came under attack from Grad missiles the previous day, and pro-Gaddafi forces attempted to enter the town. During the bombardment, NATO planes could be heard overhead. The next day, it was reported that rebels in the town of Yafran were under heavy siege and running out of vital supplies, contradicting earlier reports by the rebels that the town was captured by loyalist forces. In addition, rebels had apparently retaken the border crossing at Wazzin, while they claimed that NATO air-strikes destroyed 10–12 loyalist vehicles east of Zintan.
War of attrition, new loyalist advances
On 3 May, forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi bombarded the rebel-held town of Zintan in the Western Mountains with over 40 Grad rockets late on Tuesday, a rebel spokesman said. "They were fired in two salvoes," the spokesman, named Abdulrahman, said by telephone. "The last salvo landed moments ago. We can hear NATO aircraft overhead now." A Libyan ambulance driver from Zintan who crossed into Tunisia on Tuesday told Reuters the town had come under intense shelling by pro-Gaddafi forces. It was reported that 55 civilians were killed or wounded in the shelling.
On 7 May, 11 rebels were killed and 50 wounded, some critically, during another advance by loyalist troops towards Zintan's eastern edge.
On 11 May, it was reported that two rebels were killed and 15 wounded after coming under sniper fire in the village of Rya Ina, 9 miles east of Zintan. Loyalist snipers also fired on an ambulance transporting a wounded person, but no casualties were reported. Six rebels were also killed in an attempt to block a road used by loyalists, which resulted in an exchange of fire with pro-Gaddafi villagers.
On 18 May, rebels in the Nafusa Mountains issued a call for help to the National Transitional Council in the hopes of alleviating the constant loyalist siege on their towns. The same day, Al Jazeera English, citing rebel fighters from in and near Yafran, reported that the town had been cut off from food and medical supplies as a result of loyalist attacks with rockets and Grad missiles. Pro-Gaddafi forces were intensifying their shelling of towns in the upper part of the mountain range in an attempt to dislodge rebels from the high ground.