Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi yesterday shelled the centre of Zawiyah hours after rebels claimed they had seized control of most of the strategic port, an AFP reporter who witnessed the scene said.

Col Gaddafi was reported to have

Six Grad missiles hit Zawiyah, sparking a fierce heavy artillery exchange.

The number of casualties was not immediately clear, but cars loaded with the bodies of dead and wounded fighters were rushed to the hospital. Rebels said earlier they had seized “most” of the key port, the last barrier on their thrust towards the capital Tripoli.

“Basically most of the town is under the control of rebel fighters,” the insurgents’ field commander Abdul Hamid Ismail said of the port 40 kilometres west of Tripoli.

Mr Ismail said battles for the town had raged through the night, during which five rebels were killed while Col Gaddafi’s forces had been pushed to the eastern outskirts.

Earlier yesterday, the rebels claimed they had also wrested control of the town of Sorman, 60 kilometres west of Tripoli and Garyan, 50 kilometres to the south.

Libyan government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim has, however, said that the regime’s armed forces were capable of retaking towns and districts where the rebels have made advances in recent days.

Meanwhile, former Jordanian Foreign Minister and United Nations’ envoy for Libya, Abdul Ilah al-Khatib, arrived in Tunis yesterday. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s envoy for Libya flew into Tunis to join talks between rebels and the government of embattled leader Muammar Gaddafi.