TRIPOLI (AFP) - Fighting between Moamer Gaddafi's forces and Libyan insurgents raged Sunday across swaths of western Libya, with casualties reported in Zawiyah where rebels launched an offensive after a two-month lull. At least seven Libyan rebels were killed and 49 wounded in clashes on Sunday around rebel-held Zintan in the Berber mountains southwest of Tripoli, an AFP journalist counted at the local hospital. Aside from in the port of Zawiyah, battles were also being fought in rebel-held Zintan in the Berber mountains southwest of Tripoli, in nearby Yafran, and at Dafnia near Misrata, Libya's third city, rebel sources told AFP. Tribal fighters opposed to Gaddafi meanwhile clashed with his forces in the oasis city of Sabha, which until now had been untouched by the unrest sweeping the north African nation since a popular uprising against his four-decade authoritarian rule erupted mid-February. The fresh wave of fighting comes as Turkey said it has offered Gaddafi guarantees to leave Libya and Russian envoy Mikhail Margelov said he would soon visit Tripoli to try to find a solution to the conflict. International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, in an interview published Sunday, said meanwhile he hoped that Gaddafi "will be arrested" by his people in the coming weeks on crimes against humanity charges. The fighting in Zawiyah, which follows more than two months of relative calm in the city of 250,000 people, began on Saturday, a source told AFP in the rebel capital Benghazi. "Fighting that started yesterday between battalions loyal to Gaddafi and rebels from Zawiyah is continuing and causing very many casualties," the rebel source said, without elaborating. Loyalist forces blocked the road to the Tunisian border to "prevent the flow of refugees" from the town, located around 50 kilometres (31 miles) west of Tripoli, he added. Gaddafi's forces wrested control of Zawiyah from the rebels after fierce fighting in February and March. Meanwhile, an AFP correspondent said Gaddafi's forces pounded the outskirts of rebel-held Zintan in the Berber mountains southwest of Tripoli. Government forces posted a few kilometres (miles) to the east of Zintan, which remains under rebel control, fired Grad and Katyusha rockets at the town, causing damage but without any immediate report of casualties. Tensions was also high between Zintan and Yafran, a region bitterly contested by rebels and loyalist troops. The correspondent said Yafran and nearby Qalah were desolated, with rubble strewn across deserted streets and homes looted. Hospital staff in Yafran, on condition of anonymity, said foreign doctors were prevented from leaving by pro-Gaddafi forces, who allegedly detained and beat up some employees. Fighting also erupted in Sabha, 800 kilometres (500 miles) by road south of Tripoli and a bastion of support for Gaddafi, the rebel National Transitional Council said. Fighters of the Awlad Suleiman tribe, a rival to the Gaddafis, "liberated several streets" on Saturday, the NTC said in a statement. Gaddafi's forces opened fire, killing one man, it added. The fighting in Sabha, with a population of some 100,000 people and home to an important military base, followed two days of anti-Gaddafi protests there, the statement said. The rebels, who control most of eastern Libya as well as the port city of Misrata and a sprinkling of towns in the west, also reported fighting at Dafnia near Misrata on Saturday. A rebel source said that on Friday, 20 people were killed as Gaddafi's forces had bombarded the Dafnia area with Grad rockets, heavy artillery and tank shells. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his government had offered exit "guarantees" to the embattled Libyan leader, whom rebels have been trying to oust since February following a bloody crackdown on pro-reform protests. Gaddafi "has no other option than to leave Libya - with a guarantee to be given to him," Erdogan said on NTV television. "We have given him this guarantee. We have told him we will help him to be sent wherever he wants to go," he added, without elaborating. "We have received no reply so far." ICC prosecutor Moreno-Ocampo told the Spanish daily El Mundo he was hopeful the court's judges would rule on Gaddafi's arrest in the coming weeks. "We hope that the arrest warrant (to face charges of crimes against humanity) will be delivered soon and that Gaddafi will be detained by the Libyan people. That's what we are expecting," he said. "We are working on the assumption he will be arrested by his people, by members of his regime" and if "that is not possible by the (rebel) National Transitional Council," he added. Last month, the ICC prosecutor said he would seek arrest warrants for three people considered most responsible for crimes against humanity in Libya, Gaddafi, his son Seif Al-Islam and Libyan intelligence chief Abdallah Al-Senoussi.