Libyan conflict rages on
Wednesday 17 August 2011
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EmailStreet fighting raged on in Libya's coastal city of Zawiya today four days after rebels claimed to have taken the town.
Government troops were battling for control of the country's last functioning oil refinery, although capturing the facility is seen as a symbolic rather than practical aim as the flow of crude to the refinery has dried up and both the rebels and the government are obtaining fuel from other sources.
The advance by rebel forces from mountains in western Libya had taken them to within 30 miles of Tripoli by the weekend but has now ground to a halt, creating a similar bloody stalemate to that hundreds of miles further east on the main front, where rebels and government forces continued to fight for control of Brega today.
In that town, a doctor Mohammed Idris estimated that 18 rebels had been killed and 74 wounded on Tuesday.
No casualty figures for Zawiya have been released.
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