Fighters lay siege to troops

ZAWIYA, Libya (AP):

Dozens of opposition fighters surrounded Libya's last functioning oil refinery on Wednesday and laid siege to about 100 government troops, part of a push which brought them closer to seizing this strategic western city.

A rebel victory in Zawiya could be a turning point in the six-month-old war and leave Moammar Gaddafi nearly cornered in his increasingly isolated stronghold of Tripoli, the capital, just 50 kilometres (30 miles) to the east along the Mediterranean coast.

Rebel fighters are now closing in on the capital from the west and the south, while NATO controls the seas to the north. The opposition is in control of most of the eastern half of the country and has declared Benghazi, 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) east of Tripoli, as its de facto capital.

Wednesday's fighting focused around the sprawling refinery complex on the western outskirts of Zawiya, a city of 200,000. The rebels, who began their assault on the refinery a day earlier, took control of the facility's three-storey administration building, tearing down the Gaddafi regime's green flag that flew over the grounds.

Desperate Gaddafi troops cut off from the main government forces took cover in a residential compound and closed the gates to prevent workers from fleeing, rebels said. The troops barricaded themselves in and positioned snipers on rooftops. An Associated Press photographer inside the refinery with rebel troops heard occasional bursts of gunfire.