TOBRUK – Libyan government forces attacked opposition fighters in their last western bastions Wednesday and threatened their capital Benghazi in the east after strongman Muammar Gaddafi vowed to crush the month-old revolt.

Gaddafi loyalists killed two opposition fighters and two civilians when they assaulted Libya's third city of Misrata, a rebel spokesman reached by telephone said, AFP reported.
And an independent witness in Zintan, the first western town to go over to the opposition, said “things were starting” there, as Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam predicted everything would be over in 48 hours.
Meanwhile, efforts to secure a no-fly zone over the country to prevent attacks by Gaddafi’s air force faltered in the United Nations Security Council.
Saif al-Islam told France-based TV channel Euronews on Wednesday: “The military operations are finished. In 48 hours everything will be over. Our forces are close to Benghazi. Whatever decision is taken, it will be too late.”
He was responding to questions about talks among world powers to impose a no-fly zone over Libya, a move endorsed by the 22-member Arab League last week in Cairo and backed by the United States.
The interview was given as Gaddafi's forces launched a major attack on the rebel-held city of Misurata, killing at least five people, medical sources said.
There was no immediate comment from the opposition fighters' side following al-Islam's comments.
Tony Birtley, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Benghazi, said there was no fighting in the city on Wednesday, but added there was “a certain amount of apprehension” among the opposition fighters.
But “there is strong will and a resolve to resist Gaddafi's forces”, he said.
“This is a city of over 800,000 people. They have nailed their colors to the mast in a very clear and decisive way,” said Al Jazeera's correspondent.
A meeting of Group of Eight foreign ministers in Paris this week failed to get the agreement France was hoping for to support a no-fly zone being imposed over Libya, an issue that has also divided the UN Security Council.
But Alain Juppe, the French foreign minister who tried in vain to persuade his G8 counterparts to back a no-fly zone, wrote on his blog on Wednesday that it was not too late to take action.
“It is not enough to proclaim ... that Gaddafi must go. We have to provide the means to help those who have taken up arms against his dictatorship,” he wrote.
“Only the threat of using force can stop Gaddafi. It's by bombing, with his few dozen planes and helicopters, the opposition positions that the Libyan dictator has switched the balance.”
Pro-Gaddafi troops have been battling opposition fighters in several cities across the Libyan coastline, using machine guns and by airpower to halt the opposition fighters' advance on key cities in the country's west.
The rebellion, which began last month in the relatively poor city of Benghazi, followed an Egypt-style uprising against Gaddafi, in power since 1969, and has seen hundreds of civilians killed, some by air force planes.
Moves to impose a no-fly zone, backed by France, Great Britain, the Arab League and the Libyan opposition fighters themselves, have stalled amid ongoing discussions about the measure at the UN Security Council. A UN resolution is considered a necessary step towards international intervention in Libya.
In an article for Al Jazeera, U.S. Senator John Kerry said concrete steps were needed for the immediate implementation of a no-fly zone.
“My fear is that he is either choosing to bleed the opposition to death, rather than invite global action with a broad massacre, or waiting for the world to prove itself unwilling to act - at which point he might well begin killing civilians in large numbers,” Kerry said.
Photo: Demonstrators gather next to anti-Gaddafi graffiti in the main square of Tobruk March 15, 2011