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		</div><p><a href="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/37-die-as-gaddafi-regime-hits-back.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full" title="Protesters shout anti-Gadhafi slogans after Friday prayers at court sqauare in Benghazi (AP)" src="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/min-37-die-as-gaddafi-regime-hits-back.jpg" alt="Protesters shout anti-Gadhafi slogans after Friday prayers at court sqauare in Benghazi (AP)"/></a></p>
<p>Muammar Gaddafi&#8217;s Libyan regime has struck back at its opponents with an attack on the closest opposition-held city to Tripoli, with at least 37 people killed in fighting.</p>
<p>Tear gas and live ammunition was used to smother new protests in the capital. At least 37 people died in fighting and also in an explosion at an ammunition depot in Libya&#8217;s rebellious east.</p>
<p>The bloodshed signalled an escalation in efforts by both sides to break the deadlock that has gripped Libya&#8217;s 18-day-old upheaval. The rebellion has broken away the entire eastern half of the country from Col Gaddafi&#8217;s control and has swept over several cities in the west close to the capital.</p>
<p>So far, Col Gaddafi has had little success in taking back territory, with several rebel cities repelling assaults in the past weeks. But the opposition forces have seemed unable to go on the offensive to march on areas still under government control. Meanwhile, in Tripoli, Gaddafi loyalists have waged a campaign of terror to ensure that protesters do not rise up in significant numbers.</p>
<p>The latest assault on the rebel city of Zawiya, about 30 miles west of Tripoli, appeared to be the strongest yet by Col Gaddafi&#8217;s forces after repeated earlier forays against it were beaten back. In the morning, troops from the elite Khamis Brigade bombarded the city&#8217;s western edges with mortars, heavy machine guns, tanks and anti-aircraft weapons, several residents said. By the evening, they had also opened a front on the eastern side. Armed Zawiya citizens backed by allied army units were fighting back.</p>
<p>The commander of the rebel forces &#8211; Col Hussein Darbouk &#8211; was shot dead by fire from an anti-aircraft gun, said Alaa al-Zawi, an activist in the city. Darbouk was a colonel in Gaddafi&#8217;s army who defected along with other army troops in Zawiya early on in the uprising. Libyan state TV claimed the attackers had retaken the city. But al-Zawi, the witness and other residents said it remained in opposition hands, with skirmishes continuing after nightfall.</p>
<p>The day&#8217;s other fighting took place at Ras Lanouf, a small oil port 380 miles east of Tripoli, just outside the area of eastern Libya controlled by the opposition. Rebels attacked Ras Lanouf on Friday afternoon, feeling flush with victory after repelling Gaddafi forces who attacked them days earlier at Brega, a larger oil facility just to the east. Fighters armed with Kalashnikovs and heavy machine guns were seen streaming in pickup trucks and other vehicles from Brega heading in the direction of Ras Lanouf.</p>
<p>They battled with about 3,000 pro-Gaddafi troops, mainly around the facility&#8217;s airstrip, said a resident of the town. She reported heavy explosions starting around 4pm. As night fell, the explosions eased, she said, but it was not clear who was in control of the complex, which includes a port and storage facilities for crude coming from fields in the deserts to the south. At least two dead and 16 wounded were taken to the hospital at nearby Ajdabiya, although that did not include the toll from other hospitals in the area.</p>
<p>An Ajdabiya resident Abdel-Bari Zwei claimed opposition forces had taken over the Ras Lanouf air strip, oil facility and a housing unit, capturing two pro-Gaddafi officers. He said 11 rebels were killed in the fighting and the pro-Gaddafi forces had begun withdrawing toward the coastal city of Sirte.</p>
<p>To the north-east, hospital officials said at least 17 people were killed in an explosion at an ammunition storage facility at a military base in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi. The cause of the blast was unclear. A hospital official said it was apparently triggered when people went into the storage facility to collect weapons, but others blamed pro-Gaddafi forces for triggering the blast.</p>
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