Libya’s ruler Muammar Gaddafi’s forces and opposition fighters have been locked in fierce battles for days.

Libya’s ruler Muammar Gaddafi’s forces and opposition fighters have been locked in fierce battles for days. Clashes in a two-week-old uprising show that Gaddafi’s foes have expanded their grip in the east of the country as the long-time ruler is intensifying his savage attacks.

Media reports said that at least 30 civilians have been killed after security forces loyal to Gaddafi, attempted to retake the western town of Az Zawiyah, near the capital Tripoli, that has for days been defying his rule, witnesses have said.
Az Zawiyah - the closest opposition-held territory to the capital and also the site of an oil refinery - has been an embarrassment to the Libyan authorities who are trying to show they control at least the west of the country.

Fighters said they had seized the oil port of Ras Lanuf, as eastern regions of the country, around the city of Benghazi, have already fallen out of Gaddafi's control after a popular revolt against his four decades of rule.

BENGHAZI EXPLOSIONS
Benghazi on Friday also witnessed high casualties as explosions minutes apart were heard at a military weapons depot killing 19 people and wounded dozens, doctors said.
Residents living up to 10 kilometers from the main weapons warehouse southeast of Benghazi, said windows shook and an inferno lit up the night sky, as ambulances raced to bring the casualties to hospital.

The cause of the explosions was not immediately clear, although most local residents ruled out an air strike by forces loyal to Gaddafi in an intensifying battle with eastern rebels fighting for his ouster.
Resident Abdallah Bubakr told AFP news agency that rebels turned up at the military base, demanding weapons to take to the front at Raslanuf.

"Two cars rode up with people at the place and said they wanted weapons to take to Raslanuf. They entered the store and just after they left Rajma, there was the first explosion, followed five minutes later by another," he said.

"The first explosion was mild and the second big," he added.
Mourners and panicked relatives crowded into Al-Jala hospital, crying, shouting, pushing and shoving from the gate to the morgue. "The blood of the martyrs will not be spilled in vain," chanted young in the hospital courtyard.

Doctor Mustafa Saleh al-Orfali said 17 people had been killed and another hospital official registered 26 wounded.
Doctor Idriss Ghazali said two dead had been brought to the Houari hospital and 14 others had been wounded after witnesses reported the explosions at the Al-Rajma military base, southeast of Benghazi.