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Edition: U.S. Article Comments (0) Full Focus Photos of the week Our top photos from the past week. Full Article Follow Reuters Facebook Twitter RSS YouTube Read Casey Anthony texts: "guess who spends eternity in jail" 28 May 2011 Roadside bomb kills seven NATO troops in Afghanistan 26 May 2011 Air France crash sparks pilot mystery 27 May 2011 Lockheed says thwarted "tenacious" cyber attack 1:49am EDT Breakaway Yemen army units add to pressure on Saleh | 11:36am EDT Discussed 94 Obama departs for Europe trip, explores Irish roots 81 Netanyahu speech eyed for sign of U.S.-Israel rift 74 $1 trillion on the table in U.S. debt talks Watched GM pulls the plug Fri, May 27 2011 Scientists revive ancient spider in stunning 3D detail Tue, May 24 2011 Death toll rises in Joplin, Missouri 12:30am EDT Power cuts increase hardship in Libyan rebel mountains Tweet Share this By Matt Robinson ARRUJBAN, Libya (Reuters) - Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi have cut electricity supplies to much of the Western Mountains, threatening water supplies and stepping up a war of attrition with rebels who hold the plateau. The... Email Print Related News NATO says destroyed Gaddafi compound guard towers Sat, May 28 2011 Russia joins Western chorus for Gaddafi to go Fri, May 27 2011 Obama warns Gaddafi of "no let up" Wed, May 25 2011 France and Britain to use attack helicopters in Libya Mon, May 23 2011 EU foreign policy chief visits Libya rebel zone Sun, May 22 2011 Analysis & Opinion Virtual Bitcoins are appealing but probably doomed Aid: In favour of zero-tolerance Related Topics World » Libya » Libyan volunteers fix jammed weapons captured from Muammar Gaddafi forces at a workshop in Misrata May 28, 2011. Credit: Reuters/Zohra Bensemra By Matt Robinson ARRUJBAN, Libya | Sun May 29, 2011 10:02am EDT ARRUJBAN, Libya (Reuters) - Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi have cut electricity supplies to much of the Western Mountains, threatening water supplies and stepping up a war of attrition with rebels who hold the plateau. The blackout, which began five days ago, has coincided with an increase in shelling of the rebel command center of Zintan and the town of Arrujban. A Reuters reporter in Zintan heard about a dozen rockets strike the outskirts of the town Sunday. He said they did not appear to have landed in a populated area and there were no reports of casualties. Rebels are scrambling to bring in generators through the border crossing they hold with Tunisia to restore wells that supply most of the water to this arid region. Temperatures have soared with the onset of summer. The electricity stations lie in the desert plains, where pro-Gaddafi forces are positioned. At night, Zintan is bathed in darkness, but lights are on in the nearby Gaddafi-held village of Ryayna. Some Gaddafi positions are near the electricity stations themselves, possibly to dissuade NATO from bombing for fear of damaging the power supply. "Because of the power cuts, we can't pump the water," said Abu Bakr, a senior rebel in Arrujban. "The wells are too deep to pump manually." He said rebels were working to bring a large generator from neighboring Tunisia to pump water from the main well, known as Khartoum, which supplies Arrujban. ISOLATION There are water reserves in tanks, he said, that could last another 10 days. The town has two large generators, one of which is supplying power to the medical clinic. The western front of the Libyan war amounts to a chain of towns running more than 200 km (125 miles) from the Tunisian border across the bleak mountain plateau to Zintan, some 150 km southwest of the Libyan capital. Gaddafi's forces hold the desert plains and, at their closest point, are level with Zintan in Ryayna, some 10-15 km from the town center. With their planes grounded by NATO, forces loyal to Gaddafi are struggling to retake the high ground from the rebels. But the rebels' isolation, and their limited means to resupply through the Tunisian border, will work against them the longer the conflict drags on. Rebels have cleared a stretch of the main rebel-held road as a landing strip, saying they hope NATO will give clearance for aid and possibly weapons to be flown in from the de facto rebel capital Benghazi in eastern Libya. "We have informed Benghazi and Benghazi should have informed NATO but still no reply yet," said Colonel Juma Ibrahim, a senior rebel in Zintan. He said he feared an imminent attack by forces loyal to Gaddafi. "They are preparing for something, this is the time," he said. "We are asking Benghazi to supply us with weapons." Rebels in Arrujban say pro-Gaddafi forces some 20 km away in the plains have stepped up late-night shelling over the past five days. Similarly in Zintan, the town center has been hit by rockets at least four times over the past week, forcing the evacuation of medical aid agency Doctors Without Borders. Supplies of humanitarian aid are limited. Fuel is running low, meaning fewer people can afford to make the long journey to Tunisia to import supplies. Abu Bakr said farmers were struggling to feed their sheep because much of the grazing land is located beyond rebel control, and had taken to selling their herds in Tunisia. Saturday in Arrujban, at a make-shift stall on the back of a van, buyers were rationed to 2 kg (4 pounds) of each type of vegetable per family. Fuel is limited to around 20 liters per person every two weeks. "Because of the nature of the mountain, we are used to a hard life," said Arrujban resident Mohammad Nwair. "We can adapt to difficult conditions." (Editing by Elizabeth Piper) World Libya Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story directly or with relevant tangential information. We try to block comments that use offensive language, all capital letters or appear to be spam, and we review comments frequently to ensure they meet our standards. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above. 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