Gaddafi troops break rebel lines 30 miles from Tripoli

Muammar Gaddafi’s forces today broke through rebel lines at an opposition-held city in a dawn attack that could prove crucial to the regime’s defence of the Libyan capital.

The rebels’ setback at the city of Zawiya, 30 miles west of Tripoli, was the second in as many days.

A large arms and ammunition depot outside the city of Benghazi, the largest city in the rebel-held east of the country, blew up yesterday in a massive explosion that completely destroyed an area three times the size of a soccer field.

It was not immediately clear how the depot blew up, but suspicion immediately fell on Gaddafi agents seeking to deny the rebels the arms and ammunition they need to fight their way westward toward the Gaddafi-held city of Sirte on the Mediterranean coast.

The rebels, however, fared better elsewhere, capturing the key oil port of Ras Lanouf from pro-Gaddafi forces in their first military victory in a potentially long, westward march from the east of the country to Tripoli hundreds of miles to the west.

The contrasting fortunes of the two sides over the past 24 hours suggest that the conflict in Libya, which began on February 15 with anti-Gaddafi protests, could endure for weeks and maybe months, with neither side mustering enough military power to decisively defeat the other.

Witnesses said Ras Lanouf, about 87 miles east of the Gaddafi stronghold of Sirte, fell to rebel hands last night after a fierce battle with pro-regime forces who later fled.

One of the rebels, Ahmed al-Zawi, said the battle was won after Ras Lanouf residents joined the rebels.

“We won the battle when the people joined us,” said al-Zawi, who took part in the fighting.

Officials at a hospital in the nearby city of Ajdabiya, said five rebels were killed in the attack on Ras Lanouf and that 31 others were wounded.

“They just follow orders. After a little bit of fighting, they just run away,” said another rebel at Ras Lanouf, Borawi Saleh, an 11-year veteran of the army who is not an oil company employee.

The march on Sirte, said al-Zawi, would start after the rebels regroup and reorganise.

In Zawiya, witnesses said forces loyal to Gaddafi, Libya’s ruler of 41 years, were inside the city after overcoming rebel positions with heavy mortar shelling and machinegun fire. They said the shelling damaged government buildings and homes.

Witnesses said snipers were shooting on sight anyone on the streets or residents who venture out on their homes’ balconies.

The city’s rebels, they said, had retreated to take new positions deeper inside the city.