(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Libyan forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, using tanks, rockets and warplanes, are stepping up a campaign to root out rebels as Britain and the United States discuss an internationally backed no-fly zone.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made it clear that Washington believes any decision to impose a no-fly zone over this African oil-producing desert state is a matter for the United Nations and should not be a U.S.-led initiative.
Gaddafi's aircraft and tanks pounded rebels in Zawiyah, the closest rebel-held city to the Libyan stronghold of Tripoli in the west. A relentless government barrage blocked rebels in the east from advancing west to his strategic hometown of Sirte.
"Zawiyah as you knew it no longer exists. They have been attacking the town from 10 in the morning until 11:30 in the evening," Zawiyah resident, Ibrahim, said early on Wednesday:
Only giving one name, he told Reuters by telephone that dozens of bodies were on the streets. "There is no electricity, no water and we are cut off from the outside world," he said.
Counter-attacks by Gaddafi loyalists suggest the flamboyant autocrat in power for 41 years will not go quietly or relatively quickly as fellow leaders in Egypt and Tunisia did in a tide of popular unrest now shaking the Arab world.
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