Reports say Libyan Freedom Fighters have entered the northwestern town of Yafran, previously held by regime forces, as the NATO chief says he is confident that people across Libya can start preparing for a future without Dictator Muammar Gaddafi, the country's long-time ruler whi si being charged of war crimes as well.
Youssef Boudlal, a Reuters photographer in Yafran, on Monday said the town had been wrested by the freedom fighters.
"We are inside the town ... There is no sign of any Gaddafi forces. I can see the Freedom Fighters flags ... We have seen posters and photos of Gaddafi that have been destroyed," Boudlal said.
"We do not have details of what provided this breakthrough ... this is a town that has been held by Gaddafi forces since the start of the fighting," he said.
"But what we saw this morning was Freedom Fighters rolling into a town just 100 miles from the capital, really on the doorstep of Gaddafi.
"What propelled this to happen, we still don't know. But what we do know is that the clock certainly seems to be ticking on Gaddafi. This is really the first challenge to the city of Tripoli that we have seen in about four months."
The Freedom Fighters advance came amid intense fighting between forces loyal to Gaddafi and Freedom Fighters seeking to end his more than four-decade-long rule.
It also came as Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO's secretary-general, said damaging or destroying of 1,800 military targets so far in Libya has degraded Gaddafi's power to the extent that he will certainly be forced from power.
"We have made considerable progress," he said before a meeting of NATO defence ministers due to take place in Brussels.
"We have taken the momentum, we have turned the tide of terror unleashed by the Gaddafi regime, we have saved countless lives and we have seriously degraded the ability of the Gaddafi regime to attack civilians."
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