Fighting Near Tripoli

TOBRUK, Libya -- Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya kept his grip on the capital on Wednesday, but large areas of the east of the country remained out of his control amid indications that the fighting had reached the northwest of the country around Tripoli.

Libyans fleeing across the country’s western border into Tunisia reported fighting over the past two nights in the town of Sabratha, home of an important Roman archeological site 50 miles west of Tripoli. Thousands of Libyan forces loyal to Colonel Qaddafi have deployed there, according to Reuters.

"The revolutionary committees are trying to kill everyone who is against Qaddafi," said a doctor from Sabratha who had just left the country, but who declined to give his name because he wanted to return.

There were also reports of fighting in Misurata, a provincial center 130 miles east of the capital. A witness said that messages being broadcast from the loudspeakers of local mosques were urging people to attack government opponents, following Colonel Qaddafi’s defiant television address Tuesday night calling for ordinary citizens to assist in eliminating opponents, promising that the "cockroaches" would be tracked and killed "house by house."