Forces loyal to Col. Muammar Gaddafi began an all-out assault on the strategic refinery town of Ras Lanuf on Wednesday in an attempt to dislodge rebels who have held the town for several days.
Thick plumes of black smoke rose over the town and rebels just west of the city reported that they were coming under heavy artillery fire. It was unclear if the government was using airstrikes as well. The volume of smoke and the appearance of a large fireball suggested that a part of a refinery there might have been struck, but there was no way to immediately confirm that.
Also, tanks of forces loyal to Gaddafi closed in on the rebel-held main square of Zawiyah on Wednesday and their snipers shot at anything that moved, rebel and resident sources said. The sources said that the bodies were lying unrecovered in the ruins of many buildings destroyed in air raids earlier in the week and there was no one in the streets of the centre of the city of 2,90,000.
The rebels have been trying to move out of the town to the west after setbacks on Tuesday to their efforts to continue a march toward Tripoli, the capital and Gaddafi’s stronghold. On Wednesday, during the onslaught, hundreds of the rebel fighters had advanced more than a half mile to the west.
It was unclear who started the battle, and whether the government attacks might have been an effort to hold back the rebels.