Libyan state television showed footage of Qaddafi supporters waving flags in what it said was a celebratory march in Zawiyah and a rebel fighter told Reuters pro-Qaddafi forces had driven rebels from their stronghold in the central square.
A local doctor confirmed the report and said the death toll in the day’s fighting was at least 40 and probably many more.
“We have pulled back and they are inside the square but we will attack them again and have it back,” the rebel fighter said by telephone. “We will do that tonight. This is not the end.”
The doctor said many dead lay in the streets, including old people, women and children. Al Jazeera television said several members of Qaddafi’s forces were also killed, including a general and colonel.
A witness from Zawiyah told Al Arabiya television there was a new, heavy bombardment on Wednesday evening.
The counter-offensive by Qaddafi, almost three weeks after an uprising began against him in eastern Libya, has halted the rebels’ advance in the east and left others stranded in Zawiyah and another western city, Misrata.
At the same time, the Libyan government appeared to be putting out feelers toward western governments who have tried to isolate Qaddafi with financial sanctions and are discussing further measures to try to stop the violence.
Libyan government emissaries appeared to have flown to Brussels to talk to European Union and NATO officials meeting on Thursday and Friday, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said, suggesting the situation was very fluid.
Portugal’s Foreign Minister was expected to meet another government official from Tripoli, the Lusa news agency said. There were no details of the kind of message they were bringing.
Rebels in the east faced a fresh barrage of artillery fire on their desert frontline outside the oil port of Ras Lanuf.
Dr. Gebril Hewadi of the Benghazi medical management committee told Reuters television at least 400 people had been killed in eastern Libya since clashes began there on February 17, with many corpses yet to be recovered from bombing sites.
The eastern rebels renewed an appeal for outside powers to impose a no-fly zone to at least shield them from air attacks.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made it clear imposing a no-fly zone is a matter for the United Nations and should not be a US -led initiative.
The White House said, however, it believed a UN arms embargo on Libya contained the flexibility to allow the rebels to be armed if such a decision were made.
Qaddafi has said he would die in Libya rather than flee. But that has failed to stem speculation on his plans. A Libyan-born analyst said Qaddafi’s inner circle had approached countries in Africa and Latin America about providing him refuge in the event he had to flee.
“It’s provisional, it’s a testing of the waters, it’s just preparing for the future,” said Noman Benotman, who has contacts among Libyan security officials. “It may also be a deception, to try to unsettle the international community. But the contacts definitely happened.”
A rebel fighter and a resident had said earlier the rebel forces were surrounded in Zawiyah’s main square. “The tanks are everywhere,” the rebel fighter told Reuters by phone.
The resident said the situation was dramatic. “It’s very scary. There are a lot of snipers.”
The government promised several times to escort foreign journalists into Zawiyah, 50 km (30 miles) west of Tripoli, on Wednesday but repeatedly called off the planned visit.
A Tunisian man who crossed the border on the way from Tripoli to Tunis in mid-afternoon said Zawiyah was encircled and the sound of explosions could be heard.
“The road was okay until we got close to Zawiyah. They’ve encircled the city and dug up the road leading to it so nobody can come in or out of Zawiyah,” said Bachir al Tunesy.
Rising casualties and threats of hunger and a refugee crisis have increased pressure on foreign governments to act, but many are wary of moving from sanctions alone to military action.
“We want to see the international community support it (a no-fly zone),” Clinton told Sky News. “I think it’s very important that this not be a US -led effort.”
British Prime Minister David Cameron and US President Barack Obama agreed in a telephone call to plan “the full spectrum of possible responses, including surveillance, humanitarian assistance, enforcement of the arms embargo, and a no-fly zone.”
Britain and France want a UN resolution on a no-fly zone. UN Security Council permanent members Russia and China are cool to the idea, which could mean bombing Libyan air defenses.
Rebels on the frontline between the rebel-controlled east and Qaddafi’s forces in the west are increasingly frustrated at the failure of Washington and the West to act.
“We will complete our victory when we are afforded a no-fly zone,” Hafiz Ghoga, spokesman for the rebel National Libyan Council, said in the rebel base of Benghazi. “If there was also action to stop him (Qaddafi) from recruiting mercenaries, his end would come within hours.”
Rebels captured Ras Lanuf last week and began pushing down the strategic coastal road toward Sirte, Qaddafi’s home town.
But they were beaten back and are now on a stretch of no man’s land desert between Ras Lanuf and Bin Jawad, 550 km (340 miles) east of Tripoli.
Qaddafi loyalists launched a bombardment near rebel positions around the oil terminal of Sidra near Ras Lanuf, on Wednesday, blowing up storage tanks at the facility.
An engineer working at Sidrah said government air strikes had hit the port and destroyed storage tanks as well as facilities such as the power and water plants, Al Jazeera said.
Rebels retaliated by firing back with rockets as a fireball exploded from one of the oil tanks and the sky above the terminal filled with black smoke.
An air strike was reported on Ras Lanuf, which has sustained several attacks in the past days.
Qaddafi has said rebels were drug-addled youths and Al-Qaeda-backed terrorists. One of his sons said if Qaddafi bowed to pressure and quit, Libya would descend into civil war.
But Benotman did not rule out Qaddafi’s departure.
“This move may seem to run against the grain of his current military gains, but Qaddafi is a pragmatist who understands the power of the international community to isolate governments,” said Bentoman, recalling Libya’s isolation in the 1980s and 1990s over Qaddafi’s support of armed groups.
