Forces loyal to Libyan Dictator Muammar Gaddafi have launched new air raids on the oil city of Ras Lanuf under oppstion control and are closing in on the western town of Az Zawiyah.
Fresh reports of rockets landing on Ras Lanuf came on Wednesday, with one news correspondent there saying there was intense fighting taking place between rebels and the government's fighter jets.
"What we are hearing is intense and repeated attacks by Gaddafi's airplanes on the rebels," Jacky Rowland said. "The air force is concentrating on the big junctions at the entrance to the town. The opposition fighters are extremely panicked."
She said the oil facility there had been hit in three places.
"There are huge plumes of smoke leaping into the air. We can see mortar fire from Gaddafi troops and the rebels are firing rockets towards the west."
Khaled Kwafi, a member of the opposition forces based on the outskirts of Ras Lanuf, told Al Jazeera that people were killed and injured in the attack.
"An hour ago we saw warplanes in the sky. We heard very huge explosions and lots of smoke. Our people tried to go there but they were stopped," he said.
"We heard there are people killed and injured there."
Rebels under pressure
In addition to attacks in Ras Lanuf, forces loyal to Gaddafi launched a bombardment near rebel positions around the east Libyan oil terminal of Sidrah on Wednesday, blowing up storage tanks at the facility.
Rebels retaliated by firing back with rockets as a fireball exploded from one of the oil tanks and the sky above the terminal filled with black smoke.
Clashes were also reported from the town of Bin Jawad, where a witness told Reuters that the Libyan military was using "gunboats" against opposition forces. Other witnesses reported seeing warplanes bomb oil facilities.
Fresh violence was also reported from the town of Az Zawiyah, which has been the focus of repeated battles between pro- and anti-government forces. Late on Wednesday, a witness told Reuters that rebels had retaken the town square, after being driven from it earlier in the day. The Gaddafi government disputed that claim, saying that it had retaken the town.
The claims cannot be independently verified, as the government has refused journalists access to the city, despite promises to conduct a tour.
A doctor told Reuters the earlier offensive had left many bodies lying in the streets, with at least 40 people said to have been killed.
Gaddafi's forces are also reported to have surrounded the rebel-held town of Az Zawiyah, close to the capital Tripoli.
Tanks of forces closed in on the rebel-held main square of on Wednesday and their snipers shot at anything that moved, rebel and resident sources said.
They said bodies were lying unrecovered in the ruins of many buildings destroyed in air raids earlier in the week and there was no one in the streets of the centre.
"We can see the tanks. The tanks are everywhere," a rebel fighter told Reuters by phone from inside the city.
One doctor there said that at least forty people were killed in the day's fighting.
The Libyan government claims it has taken back the coastal town of Bin Jawad after heavy shelling there.
Gaddafi himself remains as defiant as ever, saying the Libyan people will take up arms if western powers get involved in events in Libya.
On Wednesday, three of his private planes left Tripoli. At least one of them, carrying a high-ranking official for talks with the head of the Arab League, landed in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.
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