World Crisis Online

Rebels said they pushed government forces out of Zawiya early on Saturday Libya’s Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim said “99%” of Zawiya was under government control. “The situation in Zawiya is quiet and peaceful right now,” he said on Saturday.

“We hope by tomorrow morning, life will be back to normal.”

In his interview with Le Journal du Dimanche, Col Gaddafi warned that thousands would flee Libya for Europe if the rebels won.

He expressed dismay at the lack of international support for his cause.

“I am surprised that nobody understands that this is a fight against terrorism,” Col Gaddafi said.

He also criticised the international community for freezing assets, saying countries were trying to steal money from Libya. He said money held abroad did not belong to him. “I only have this tent,” he said.

‘Male population armed’ After heavy fighting on Friday, rebel forces took control of Ras Lanuf, an oil port east of Sirte.

The rebels have pushed further west and taken the town of Bin Jawad. Some of the rebels said they were determined to push on to Sirte.

The town is heavily guarded and is unlikely to fall without a struggle, correspondents say.

An Indian national teaching in Sirte told the BBC she could hear sporadic artillery fire on Saturday. Sunita Singh said the male population of Sirte had been armed to help with the defence of the city.

In other developments:

• Hospital officials in opposition-held Benghazi say the death toll from a massive explosion at a weapons dump outside the city is at least 26, with the cause of the blast unknown
• Thousands of migrant workers are on the move, trying to flee the violence, say officials at the UN’s refugee agency. Most of those living in Benghazi have been evacuated, while about 10,000 others are heading for the Egyptian border
• Libyan state TV accuses the Netherlands of spying, following the capture on Sunday of a Dutch navy helicopter and its three-strong crew by government militias
• Rebels show reporters the wreckage of a downed warplane near Ras Lanuf in eastern Libya

In Benghazi, the rebels have formed a 30-member National Libyan Council which it says is now the country’s sole representative.

It has a three-member crisis committee, which includes a head of military affairs and one for foreign affairs.

Omar Hariri, one of the officers who took part in Col Gaddafi’s 1969 coup but was later jailed, was appointed head of the military, Reuters reported, while Ali Essawi, a former ambassador to India who quit last month, was put in charge of foreign affairs.

The council said it would withhold the names of those members in Gaddafi-controlled areas for their own safety.

The UN estimates that more than 1,000 people have been killed in the violence in Libya.

Strategic points

• Tripoli
• Military
• Oil
• Population

The map above shows the locations and towns under the control of pro- and anti-Gaddafi forces

The Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, is still in control in the capital, Tripoli. Protests in the city have centred on Green Square but various key buildings, like the headquarters of state TV and the People’s Hall, have been attacked and damaged. Reports suggested Colonel Gaddafi had fled abroad, but he has since appeared on television from his compound in Bab al-Azizia, to make a defiant speech condemning the protests.

The Libyan Army is a weak force of little more than 40,000, poorly armed and poorly trained. Keeping the army weak is part of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s long-term strategy to eliminate the risk of a military coup, which is how he himself came to power in 1969. The defection of some elements of the army to the protesters in Benghazi is unlikely to trouble the colonel. His security chiefs have not hesitated to call in air strikes on their barracks in the rebellious east of the country.

Libya produces 2.1% of the world’s oil. Since the protests began, production has dropped, although Saudi Arabia has promised to make up any shortfall. The high revenue it receives from oil means Libyans have one of the highest GDPs per capita in Africa. Sirte basin is responsible for most of Libya’s oil output. It contains about 80% of the country’s proven oil reserves, which amount to 44 billion barrels, the largest in Africa.

Most of Libya’s 6.5m poplation is concentrated along the coast and around the country’s oilfields. Population density is about 50 persons per square kilometre along the coast. Inland, where much of the country is covered by inhospitable desert, the population density falls to less than one person per square kilometre.

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