A deadly clash broke out in Libya\'s rebel capital of Benghazi in the wake of the murder of their military chief, as the Kadhafi regime said Sunday it was in contact with rebel leadership members.
Four rebels were killed in the clash with a pro-Kadhafi group in Benghazi overnight, a rebel spokesman said.
"It was a long battle and it took many hours because they were heavily armed," Mahmud Shamman told AFP. "In the end we arrested 31 of them. We lost four people."
He said the group, which suffered "about 20 casualties," was rounded up for its role in organising a prison break in Benghazi earlier in the week.
Rebel forces had surrounded the camp of the group linked to Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi after they refused to obey an order from the rebels\' National Transitional Council (NTC) for all militias to disband and lay down their arms.
The clash follows last week\'s assassination of rebel military chief General Abdel Fatah Yunis, whose death remains cloaked in mystery. The general was a right-hand man to Kadhafi before his defection to the rebel ranks.
While the rebels tried to quash rumours about the mysterious death of their army chief, the Kadhafi regime said it was in contact with members of the NTC.
"There are contacts with Mahmud Jibril (number two in the NTC), and (Ali) Essawy (in charge of external relations), (religious leader Ali) Sallabi and others," deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaaim told a Tripoli news conference.
Kadhafi on Saturday night renewed his pledge "never to abandon" the battle, in an audio tape broadcast on state television despite NATO air strikes earlier the same day on the broadcaster\'s headquarters in Tripoli.
Libya\'s enemies would be "defeated in the face of the resistance and courage of the Libyan people," he said in a speech following the strikes which Tripoli said killed three journalists.
The rebels, who have frequently denied having had any direct negotiations with Tripoli, sought to stamp out rumours by giving details on Yunis\'s killing and bringing all militias under the control of the NTC interior ministry.
Meanwhile, the Benghazi villa of the murdered general was surrounded by checkpoints early on Sunday and no traffic allowed on the coastal city\'s main highway.
South of Benghazi, rebels reported an attack by pro-Kadhafi forces on the southern oasis town of Jalo, but said it had been repulsed.
On the western front in the five-month-old armed revolt, Libyan rebels on Sunday took the village of Josh at the foot of the Nafusa mountain range, AFP journalists said.
"We took Josh this morning and are now heading west. Now we\'re fighting to take Tiji," further down the valley, Juma Brahim, head of the rebel fighters\' operational command in the Nafusa region, told AFP.
He gave a casualty toll of three dead and four wounded.
The Nafusa region has seen heavy fighting between rebels and forces loyal to Kadhafi since the insurgents launched a major offensive this month in a drive on Tripoli.
NATO said its warplanes carried out 50 strike sorties on Saturday, with hits in the areas of Brega, Zliten, Waddan and Tripoli.
France said on Sunday it was committed to striking Kadhafi\'s military assets for as long as needed for him to quit power, and called on Libyans in Tripoli to rise up against him.
"We say to Kadhafi that we will not ease our pressure and to his opponents that we will not abandon them," French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet was quoted as saying by the newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche.
"Things have to move more in Tripoli... the population must rise up," he added.
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