At least eight people were killed and more than 20 wounded in clashes between Libyan rebels and loyalists of Muammar Gaddafi at the oil town of Raslanuf, a doctor said today.

"We have eight dead people after the fighting in Raslanuf and 21 injured. Two or three of them were moved to Benghazi hospital in a critical situation," Doctor Ahmad Burtima told AFP at a hospital in the town of Ajdabiya.

An AFP reporter late yesterday saw opposition rebels in control of Raslanuf, positioned outside the oil compound, army barracks, police station and residential quarter, celebrating an apparent victory over Gaddafi forces.

Some of the injured rebels being treated at hospital in Ajdabiya, a town further along the Mediterranean into the rebel-controlled east, told AFP they had been heavily outnumbered and under-equipped compared to the loyalists.

"Gaddafi forces had heavy weapons. Most of the rebels just had Kalashnikovs. I was hit in the chest by an RPG. I lay on the roadside, then an ambulance took me to (the town of) Brega and then to Ajdabya," said Osama Ahmad, 28.

Another young man, Bashir, 30 from the de facto rebel capital Benghazi was shot in the chest.

"It happened while we were fighting one kilometre from the airport. We were outnumbered by Gaddafi forces," he said.