Opposition freedom fighters fall back from oil town under rocket fire and aerial assault as Gaddafi loyalists launch major offensive.
Opposition freedom fighters have been forced to withdraw from the central port city of Ras Lanuf after Dictator Muammar Gaddafi launched a massive offensive against opposition fighting to end the Libyan leader's decades-long rule.
Pro- and anti-government forces are locked in intense fighting for control of several other cities and towns along the coastline to the east of Tripoli, including Brega and Bin Jawad, as well as in Az Zawiyah to the west of the capital.
Opposition freedom forces in Ras Lanuf, the site of a key oil installation, are now retreating from their positions and heading further east.
Opposition fighters were seen trooping into cars and trucks by the hundreds and fleeing eastwards, after coming under intense mortar and rocket fire, as well as aerial bombardment earlier in the day.
Pro-Gaddafi forces hit a natural gas installation, and bombed a civilian house and the area around a hospital, Killing innocent individuals, opposition forces said.
In an interview with the Reuters news agency, Dictator Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam said the time had come for full scale military action against the rebels.
"There is no more chance for negotiations with rebels fighting the Libyan government," he said on Thursday.
He said the military would never give up - but would fight in Libya and die in Libya.
In a press conference late on Thursday, Khalid al-Kaim, Libya's deputy foreign minister, reiterated that it was "clear" that most anti-government protesters and fighters were members of al-Qaeda.
Many had wondered in recent days about "why Gaddafi did not employed his full forces".
"Today we've seen those forces in action," Al Jazeera's Tony Birtley said.
We were caught right in the middle as his forces out-flanked, and then out-bombed and out-shot the opposition forces. There was sustained aerial and artillery and mortar bombardment, followed by a flanking movement.
"There have been a number of casualties. We've seen trucks going along the highway, but that's being shelled by Gaddafi forces all the way along. I counted ... 50 shells falling.
"We've seen trucks with wounded lying in the back of pick-ups, and I think the casualty toll is going to be high. We also saw and heard extensive ground fire coming from the beach [in the north], we think there's been a flanking movement from the beach.
"But it seems like the major offensive that we thought was going to happen is underway now."
Birtley reported that while many opposition fighters had now left the town, a "hard core" was going back to fight.
He said the attack showed the "professionalism of Gaddafi's troops, and it shows that ... he's hitting back."
Engineers at the town's oil facilities have been burning off poisonous gas in case of a direct hit on the refinery, rebels say.
"We've been defeated. They are shelling and we are running away. That means that they're taking Ras Lanuf," a rebel fighter, dressed in military fatigues who gave his name as Osama, told the AFP news agency.
"The town of Ras Lanuf has been purged of armed gangs and the green flags have been hoisted over all [government] buildings," Libyan state television reported on Thursday evening. The report said that government forces were "advancing on Benghazi".
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