A rebel fighter, speaking by phone from inside Zawiyah, “We can see the tanks. The tanks are everywhere."

The fighter, named Ibrahim, said forces loyal to Qaddafi were in control of the main road and the suburbs of Zawiyah.

Rebel forces still controlled the square and the enemy was about 1,500 meters away, he said.

Ibrahim said there were army snipers on top of most of the buildings, shooting whoever dared to leave their homes.

He said half the city was destroyed by air attacks.

“There are many dead people and they can’t even bury them. Zawiyah is deserted. There’s nobody on the streets. No animals, not even birds in the sky,” he said.

Rebels had killed a high-ranking cousin of Qaddafi in fighting earlier in the week, and “that’s why he bombed the city. They wanted to retrieve the body and they did,” Ibrahim said.

He said about 60 rebel fighters had gone to attack an army base on Tuesday about 20 kms (12 miles) from Zawiyah.

“None of them has returned and we don’t know if they’re dead or alive. We haven’t heard from them,” he said.

Libya’s state television broadcast Qaddafi’s address early on Wednesday, in which he called on a group of youths from the town of Zintan, 75 miles (120 kilometers) southwest of Tripoli, to help retake areas seized by rebels.

Qaddafi again blamed Al-Qaeda operatives from Egypt, Algeria, Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories for the turmoil roiling his country since Feb. 15.

Pro-Qaddafi forces have been battling rebel forces in the east of the country and in a handful of others near the capital Tripoli, which remains under the control of his regime.

Qaddafi has been in power since 1969.
 

In an interview broadcast also on Wednesday, Qaddafi said that Libyans would fight back if Western nations impose a no-fly zone to prevent the regime from using its air force to bomb government opponents staging a rebellion.

He said imposing the restrictions would prove the West’s real intention was to seize his country’s oil wealth.

Qaddafi made his remarks in an interview aired Wednesday by Turkey’s state-run TRT Turk television. The interview was conducted late at night Tuesday when Qaddafi made a surprise appearance at a hotel where foreign journalists are staying in Tripoli and gave a few interviews.

In the interview, Qaddafi was responding to US and British plans for action against his regime, including imposing a no-fly zone to prevent Qaddafi’s warplanes from striking rebels.

Qaddafi claimed such a move would lead Libyans to understand that the foreigners’ aim was to seize oil and take their freedom away. If that happened, he said, he “Libyans will take up arms and fight.”

In the TRT Turk interview, Qaddafi said there were no legitimate grounds for a foreign intervention in his country, insisting that Libya was only fighting Al-Qaeda as in Afghanistan or Pakistan.

“If Al-Qaeda seizes Libya, that will amount to a huge disaster,” Qaddafi said. “If they (Al-Qaeda fighters) take this place over, the whole region, including Israel, will be dragged into chaos. Then, (Al-Qaeda leader Osama) Bin Laden may seize all of north Africa that faces Europe.”