Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi are trying to crush rebels holding out in the western town of Zuwarah, government and opposition sources said Monday.
"There are pockets of resistance in Zuwarah, the armed forces are going to cleanse the town," the source close to the authorities in Tripoli said, playing down the situation.
"There are a few saboteurs who are holding out but nothing serious," the source said, asking not to be identified.
The opposition source said the army had sent around 10 tanks and machine-gun carriers from Sabratha, 70 kilometres (45 miles) west of Tripoli, to Zuwarah, 50 kilometres further along the coast from the capital.
A resident named Tahar reached by telephone said, "We can hear firing on the east side of town. I hope they don't hit any houses; it's a small town and there could be a massacre."
Most of the 20,000 residents of Zuwarah are non-Arab Amazighs of Berber origin, who make up 10 percent of the Libyan population and mainly live in the western mountains or southern deserts.
Gaddafi denies their existence and they complain of being marginalised and deprived of their cultural and linguistic identity.
A media trip organised by the government 10 days ago from Tripoli west to the Tunisian border went through Zuwarah, where journalists saw clear traces of the violence that erupted when anti-regime protesters clashed with security forces in the first days of the month-old popular uprising against Gaddafi.
Windows of a municipality building and those of a police station were shattered, the carcass of a burnt-out official building teetered and anti-Gaddafi slogans were still discernible under a coat of quickly applied white paint.
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