20110312
REUTERS

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Troops loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi launched an assault on the city of Misrata on Saturday, attempting to recapture the last town in the west of the country still in rebel hands.

Apparently unsettled by the uprisings against his 41-year rule that began just under a month ago, Gaddafi was initially slow to respond, but he has regained the initiative, ordering his troops onto the counter-offensive, crushing a revolt to the west of Tripoli and pushing back rebels in the east.

The only rebel outpost between the capital and the eastern front around the oil town of Ras Lanuf is Misrata, Libya's third largest city, with a population of some 300,000 people, around 200 km (130 miles) east of Tripoli.

"They are trying to get into Misrata, they are now 10 km away," said rebel spokesman Gemal by telephone. "We are hearing shelling. We have no choice but to fight."

"I can hear loud explosions," said a resident who would only give his name as Mohammad. "Everybody is rushing home, the shops have closed and the rebels are taking up positions."

It took a week of repeated assaults by government troops, backed by tanks and air power to finish off the uprising in Zawiyah, a much smaller town, 50 km (30 miles) west of Tripoli.

While the death toll from the fighting in Zawiyah is unknown, much of Zawiyah was gutted and destroyed by the fighting, gaping holes blown by tank rounds and rockets through buildings around the main square. Gaddafi's forces bulldozed a cemetery where rebel fighters had been buried.