Heavy machine-gun fire erupted before dawn Sunday in the Libyan capital, including in the neighborhood of Col. Moammar Gadhafi's residence, as his supporters poured into the streets after state television broadcast unconfirmed claims that the government's armed forces had recaptured key areas around the country.
Throughout eastern Libya the regime's claims of dramatic progress against the rebels in the oil-refinery city of Ras Lanuf, the rebel capital of Benghazi and the eastern border city of Tobruq appeared false. Residents of Benghazi and Tobruq, which government officials said had fallen back under control of Tripoli early Sunday, said there was no sign of a pro-Gadhafi force in their areas. Residents and journalists in Ras Lanuf contacted Sunday morning said the city remained firmly in rebel control.
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Instead, it still appeared that forward momentum lay with the rebel forces, which continued their creeping westward march toward Tripoli on Sunday, after taking control of a string of small coastal towns in recent days.
Mr. Gadhafi's propaganda offensive claiming victory appeared to be an attempt to rally his supporters, particularly in his birthplace and tribal stronghold of Sirte, which is now less than 60 miles away from advancing rebel fighters, who said they hope to attack the city by the end of the day on Sunday.
Until Sunday, the government held full control of the capital, home to two million of the country's approximately six million people, and Sirte, while most of the remaining key coastal cities were under rebel control.
The situation reported in the east by residents, rebel officials and journalists based in those places contrasted sharply with the account put forward by the government amid an unstable and explosive situation inside the capital early in the morning.
Around 4:30am gunfire erupted in the vicinity of the leader's main compound in Tripoli and near to the hotel where government officials are housing foreign journalists invited to cover the political situation here.
Sustained gunfire could be heard for more than one hour—consisting of short, controlled bursts of assault rifles followed by responses of fire from a heavier caliber weapon. It was unclear who was the target of the gunfire or who was doing the shooting.
Rebel forces in Libya continue to move against Gaddafi held territory. Video courtesy of Reuters.
By 6 a.m., the time of the dawn prayer, the gunfire had quieted down and transformed into more wild outbursts of small caliber weapons and the honking of multiple car horns. Swiftly, the area around Col. Gadhafi's residence filled with celebrating people, playing raucous music and shouting from passing vehicles. Residents from three other neighborhoods in Tripoli—along the western coastal districts to eastern downtown neighborhoods—also reported hearing burst of what also appeared to be celebratory gunfire.
As tensions eased, government spokesman Musa Ibrahim told foreign journalists that there had been no fighting in Tripoli but that the residents of the city were starting to celebrate news that a well-planned government offensive had succeeded in the east.
According to Mr. Ibrahim, Libyan tribes in the eastern part of the country joined forces with military brigades in a military offensive that has been planned for days to overthrow the rebel army in control of much of the country.
The offensive kicked off yesterday afternoon and with the help of the tribes swept from Sirte to take Ras Lanuf and then Ajdabiya, he said. "From the east, tribes helped armed forces take Tobruq and advance towards Benghazi. He said that early Sunday morning government forces had also surrounded Benghazi and that government officials believed that the head of the interim government set up by the rebels in Benghazi had been captured. The liberation process is not finished but we basically have won," said Mr. Ibrahim.
Libyan state television showed Tripoli residents swarming toward Green Square, the central downtown plaza to celebrate what was being reported as large military gains.
Meanwhile, the situation in the contested city of Zawiya remained unclear. The military had closed the coastal road from Tripoli into Zawiya and had erected checkpoints on the road from Zawiya towards the capital. Tanks were also in position on an inland road cutting off access to the city, which is located 30 miles west of Tripoli.
The military siege around the city appeared tight and it was unclear how Zawiya residents could escape the city of approximately 200,000 that witnessed heavy and bloody battles on Saturday in which at least 27 people died.
Rebels claim they now control the critical oil port of Ras Lanouf after pro-Gadhafi forces bomb a major weapons depot near Benghazi, Libya. Video courtesy of Reuters.
Government troops from three separate brigades had attacked the rebel-held city center from three directions, using tanks and heavy artillery in a lengthy daybreak battle and a renewed offensive in the midafternoon, according to two residents.
Military forces banned journalists from entering Zawiya. All those reached by telephone either requested anonymity or only gave their first names for security reasons.
The offensive appeared to be part of a decisive push by the government to dislodge the rebels who for more than a week had been holding onto the strategically important oil-refinery town alongside the Mediterranean Sea. It comes after a failed government offensive Friday to retake that ground.
By nightfall Saturday several residents said government forces had once more retreated to their positions on the city's fringes.
A man who was sobbing hysterically said he witnessed his brother being shot and killed inside his car by men in two sports utility vehicles on the highway between Tripoli and the Tunisian border that runs past Zawiya.
Another resident said several buildings in the center of town including a bank and a hotel were severely damaged as troops shot sustained barrages of heavy artillery fire in the congested downtown area.
A man who gave his name as Ali said he personally counted the bodies of at least 27 people who died Saturday. He said some of the bodies were taken to the hospital while others were pulled out by relatives and brought home.
Another resident, speaking to the British Broadcasting Corp., said that the city had buried 30 people in the fighting Friday.
"Tell the world! People are being killed, civilians. He is destroying the city," said another resident. As he spoke to The Wall Street Journal, sustained bursts of artillery fire could be heard in the background, as well as prayers being called over mosque loudspeakers.
The casualty figures couldn't be independently confirmed.
A man who said he was fighting alongside the rebels claimed they damaged one government tank and seized an armored vehicle in Saturday's clashes. Rebels in Zawiya were mostly equipped with Kalashnikovs, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and improvised bombs, according to the man who gave his name as Salem.
"We won't accept dishonor, we either die or he leaves power," said Salem, referring to the Libyan leader.
The bloodshed in Zawiya contrasted with festivities Saturday night in Tripoli's central Green Square where cheering pro-Gadhafi youth danced and waved pro-regime banners and flags during an open-air concert.
"Moammar you are the light of my eyes," some chanted.
Deputy Foreign Minister Khalid Kaim said the situation in Zawiya was quiet, but didn't comment on the casualty figures. Earlier in the week, Mr. Kaim said the rebels inside the city were al Qaeda sympathizers. "In Zawiya the situation is quiet and peaceful right now [after nightfall]. We hope that by tomorrow morning life will be back to normal in Zawiya," he said.
The assault in Zawiya underscores the military challenges that the government will have in regaining control of vast swathes of territory now under rebel control around the capital as well as the east: how to forcibly take control of areas that are heavily populated and resistant to government rule.
Government divisions of tanks and other armored assets have ringed Zawiya throughout the week, effectively besieging the city and ensnaring the rebel forces deep inside the city. Mr. Kaim said earlier in the week that the government wouldn't launch military offensives until political negotiations with rebels had been exhausted, although there has been no evidence of any negotiations this week.
Meanwhile, rebel forces continued their westward push Saturday toward Sirte, a stronghold for Col. Gadhafi, while the rebels' provisional government reversed an earlier call for air strikes by the U.S. and other outside powers.
The rebel forces pushed about 19 milespast Ras Lanuf, the coastal oil-refinery town they retook from government control Friday. As night fell, they were concentrating about 55 miles away from Sirte, the furthest west they have advanced since the uprising began Feb. 17.
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In Sirte, meanwhile, there were growing reports that support for Col. Gadhafi among the tribes there, including Col. Gadhafi's own Gatatfa tribe, may be beginning to slip. Both the Gatatfa and Al-Farjan tribes were reconsidering their support for Col. Gadhafi, according to Juma al-Farijani, a police officer in Sirte who is currently in the rebel-held city of Benghazi but has extensive contacts with relatives and colleagues in Sirte.
Sirte is Col. Gadhafi's birthplace and his tribal stronghold. It sits halfway between the de facto rebel capital of Benghazi, and Tripoli, where Col. Gadhafi remains in control. The collapse of Sirte to rebel forces would deal a critical blow to Col. Gadhafi's crumbling rule, depriving him of both the symbolic heart of his support base and a key strategic swath of territory that stands as the last significant bulwark between rebels in the east and the capital of Tripoli.
Amid, the rebels' faster-than-anticipated westward advance, the provisional government set up by rebel officials known as the Libyan National Council held its first official meeting at Benghazi's courthouse, the building where the uprising began and which has emerged as the nerve center of the rebel leadership.
After the meeting, the council's leader, Abdel Mustafa Jalil, and its deputy leader, Abdel Hafeez Goga, told a press conference that the council didn't seek any direct military intervention by foreign powers, including air strikes.
"We do not want direct military intervention or any foreign troops on Libyan soil," said Mr. Goga. "The revolutionaries have decided they have no need for [outside military] action for the time being. They have gotten us this far and they will carry on the fight."
Earlier in the week, Mr. Goga said that the rebel leadership would like foreign nations to launch air strikes on Col. Gadhafi's military bases. He said Saturday that the earlier call for air strikes came as a result of decisions by local councils, not the recently inaugurated national body. The National Council, which includes representatives of those local councils, had reached a different conclusion after hearing from the rebel rank and file, Mr. Goga said.
The National Council, which includes 30 representatives from cities and villages around Libya, also tapped two men to handle the provisional government's foreign relations, Mahmoud Jabreel and Ali el-Eissawi.
They tapped Omar Hariri, a former general who was one of Col. Gadhafi's fellow revolutionaries in 1969 but was later imprisoned by Col. Gadhafi for his role in a coup plot, to serve as the rebels' de facto and provisional minister of defense.
Mr. Goga said that defected Libyan diplomats who have thrown their support behind the rebels, including Libya's representative to the United Nations in New York and the country's ambassador to Washington, would serve as the rebels' diplomatic corps effective immediately.
Mr. Jaleel declared the National Council was the sole representative of the Libyan people. He said it included representatives of rebel-controlled cities in the east, and cities still under Col. Gadahfi's control or currently contested. He said some cities most firmly under Col. Gadhafi's control had yet to name representatives to the council but that empty seats had been reserved for them.
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