Key Libyan Oil Pipeline Hub Is Still In Rebel Hands

The key Libyan oil pipeline hub of Ras Lanuf was still in rebel hands on Sunday, a news agency reported, countering claims by a state-owned television channel that it had been recaptured after its loss on Friday.
Earlier a state television channel claimed on Sunday that forces loyal to Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi have recaptured a string of key towns including Tobruk which controls access to the Egyptian border. "Libyan armed forces have taken control of the cities of Misrata (Libya's third city) and Ras Lanuf," a key oil town captured by rebels on Friday, the Allibiya channel said.
Troops also recaptured Tobruk, the television said, adding that there had been celebrations of the counteroffensive in the loyalist strongholds of Sirte Kadhafi's hometown on the central coast and Sebha in the south, as well as the capital Tripoli.
Heavy automatic weapons fire erupted in the Libyan capital Tripoli on Sunday, the first such outbreak in Muammar Gaddafi's main stronghold in a two-week-old insurrection against his 41-year-old rule.
It was unclear who was doing the shooting, which started at 5:45 a.m. (0345 GMT, just before daybreak, or what had caused it. Machine gun volleys, some of them heavy calibre, were reverberating around central Tripoli, along with ambulance sirens, pro-Gaddafi chants, whistling and a cacophony of car horns as vehicles sped through the vicinity.
A government spokesman denied any fighting was under way in Tripoli. "I assure you, I assure you, I assure you, I assure you, there is no fighting going on in Tripoli," said Mussa Ibrahim, a government spokesman. "Everything is safe. Tripoli is 100 percent under control. What you are hearing is celebratory fireworks. People are in the streets, dancing in the square." He warned, however: "I would like to advise not to go there for your safety.
The armed revolt was inspired by generally peaceful uprisings that toppled despots in neighbouring Egypt and Tunisia and have spread to other Arab countries with long entrenched leaders and a deficit of democracy, good governance and jobs.
Libyan rebels were also advancing from the east on Gaddafi's hometown Sirte, around 500 km (300 miles) from Tripoli, and clinging to positions in a western town near the capital after withstanding two armoured assaults by government forces.
A tense calm settled over the western town of Zawiyah after nightfall on Saturday, with rifle-toting insurgents on rooftops and manning checkpoints on streets leading into the center.
But the rebels said they were bracing for another tank and artillery attack by government on Sunday.
A doctor in Zawiyah, some 50 km (30 miles) west of Tripoli, said at least 30 people, mostly civilians, were killed during fighting on Saturday that wrecked the town center, raising to at least 60 the death toll from two days of battles.
Almost 600 km (400 miles) to the east along Libya's Mediterranean coast, insurgents said they took the town of Bin Jawad on Saturday, on the heels of seizing the oil port of Ras Lanuf, and were thrusting westwards towards Sirte.
Exultant after asserting control over much of the east of the vast oil-exporting North African state in a revolt against the flamboyant autocrat Gaddafi, some rebels said an assault on Sirte was imminent. "We're going to attack Sirte, now," rebel fighter Mohamed Salim said, while another fighter, Mohamed Fathi, said: "Listen, we have no organization and no military plan. We go where we're needed."
"If (rebels) can expand down into the Gulf of Sirte, they've got a very good shot at independence at the least or maybe even overturning him at the most," said Peter Zeihan, analyst with the U.S.-based Stratfor intelligence newsletter.
But others were wary of the limitations of an undisciplined rebel force made up of soldiers who have bolted from Gaddafi's ranks and volunteers who have more enthusiasm than experience.
GADDAFI REDOUBT
Where many eastern towns have fallen with scant resistance, Sirte is unlikely to be a pushover. It has long received hefty subsidies from Gaddafi, who liked to host Arab and other international conferences in the coastal city.
Sirte also hosts a major air base and significant military forces loyal to Gaddafi and the Sirte basin is home to a large part of Libya's oil reserves.
Britain's Sunday Times reported that rebels had seized a British SAS special forces unit of up to eight soldiers escorting a junior diplomat in eastern Libya on a secret diplomatic mission to make contact with opposition leaders.
The SAS intervention apparently angered opposition figures fear Gaddafi could use any evidence of Western military intervention to sway patriotic support away from the uprising, according to the London paper.
In a French newspaper interview, Gaddafi said he was embroiled in a fight against terrorism and expressed dismay at the absence of support from abroad.
"I am surprised that nobody understands that this is a fight against terrorism," Gaddafi told le Journal du Dimanche. "Our security services cooperate. We have helped you a lot these past few years. So why is it that when we are in a fight against terrorism here in Libya no one helps us in return?"
Western leaders have denounced what they call Gaddafi's brutal response to the uprising, and the International Criminal Court said he and his inner circle face investigation for alleged targeting of civilians by his security forces.
Gaddafi said Islamic holy war would engulf the Mediterranean region if the insurrection succeeded. "There would be Islamic jihad in front of you, in the Mediterranean," he said. "(Osama) bin Laden's people would come to impose ransoms on land and sea. We will go back to the time of Red Beard, of pirates, Ottomans imposing ransoms on boats."
Gaddafi added that his government was "doing well" despite the turmoil and warned Europe against an influx of Libyan migrants to its shores if his foes drove him from power.
UNCLEAR REBEL LEADERSHIP
But the opposition, while assembling an inspired fighting force, has failed to produce a convincingly clear leadership, a weakness Gaddafi hopes to exploit as the struggle continues.
In Benghazi, eastern heartland of the insurrection, the opposition National Libyan Council said it had named a three-member crisis committee, including a head of military affairs and foreign affairs. Its head told Al Jazeera television it expected to be formally recognized soon by some countries.
In Tripoli, Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim told reporters Zawiyah was "quiet and peaceful" late on Saturday. "We hope by tomorrow morning life will be back to normal."
In Zawiyah, whose takeover by rebels earlier last week shook the Libyan leader because Libya's west has traditionally been Gaddafi's basis of popular support, residents said sporadic clashes after dusk abated by late evening.
But the atmosphere was tense with the situation seeming fluid and the rebels were on alert for a fresh barrage.
Abu Akeel, a Zawiyah resident, said government forces had shelled houses and fired on a mosque where people were taking shelter. Another resident said he saw more than 20 tanks advance across the main square during the second assault.
In Bin Jawad, rebels played the pre-Gaddafi monarchist national anthem over a loudspeaker. Government fighter jets and a helicopter circled overhead but did not open fire.
The Libyan revolt is the bloodiest yet in a string of uprisings against long-entrenched rulers in the Middle East and North Africa over the past two months.
The International Energy Agency said the revolt had blocked about 60 percent of Libya's 1.6 million bpd (barrels per day) oil output. The drop, due largely to the flight of thousands of foreign oil workers, will batter the economy and have already jacked up crude prices abroad.