Tripoli, March 05: Muammar Qaddafi’s regime struck back at its opponents Friday, launching a powerful attack on the closest opposition-held city to Tripoli and firing tear gas and live ammunition to smother new protests in the capital. At least 37 people died in fighting and in an explosion at an ammunitions depot in Libya’s rebellious east.
The bloodshed signaled an escalation in efforts by both sides to break the deadlock that has gripped Libya’s 18-day-old upheaval. The rebellion has broken away the entire eastern half of the country from Qaddafi’s control and has swept over several cities in the west close to the capital.
So far, Qaddafi has had little success in taking back territory, with several rebel cities repelling assaults in the past weeks. But the opposition forces have seemed unable to go on the offensive to march on areas still under government control.
Meanwhile, in Tripoli — Qaddafi’s most important bastion — his loyalists have waged a campaign of terror to ensure that protesters do not rise up in significant numbers.
Friday’s assault on the rebel city of Zawiya, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Tripoli, appeared to be the strongest yet by Qaddafi’s forces after repeated earlier forays against it were beaten back.
In the morning, troops from the elite Khamis Brigade — named after the son of Qaddafi who commands it — bombarded the city’s western edges with mortars, heavy machine guns, tanks and anti-aircraft weapons, several residents said. By the evening, they had also opened a front on the eastern side. Armed Zawiya citizens backed by allied army units were fighting back.
The commander of the rebel forces — Col. Hussein Darbouk — was shot to death by fire from an anti-aircraft gun, said Alaa Al-Zawi, an activist in the city. Darbouk was a colonel in Qaddafi’s army who defected along with other army troops in Zawiya early on in the uprising.
A witness who was at Zawiya’s hospital said at least 18 people in the city were killed and 120 wounded. Libyan media claimed the attackers had retaken the city. But Al-Zawi, the witness and other residents said it remained in opposition hands, with skirmishes continuing after nightfall.
They and other witnesses and residents around the country spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
—–Agencies