Anti-government forces in Libya on Sunday seized control over the city of Zawiya, a city closest to the Libyan capital Tripoli, where longtime ruler Muammar Gadhafi was struggling to keep his grip on power.
An Associated Press reporter, who arrived Sunday in Zawiya, 30 miles west of Tripoli, said forces loyal to Gadhafi were surrounding the city of 200,000, but anti-government rebels and troops allied with them are in control of the city center.
Police stations and government offices have been torched and anti-Gadhafi graffiti is everywhere. Many buildings in the city are pockmarked by bullet holes.
"Gadhafi Out," chanted hundreds in the city center, where army tanks controlled by rebels are deployed.
The red, green and black flag of Libya's anti-Gadhafi rebellion was flying from a building in the town center and a crowd of several hundred people was chanting "This is our revolution," a reporter said.
One man in the center, called Mustafa, said seven people were killed in the latest clashes with pro-Gadhafi security forces and many more were wounded.
"But Zawiyah is free like Misrata and Benghazi. Gadhafi is crazy. His people shot at us using rocket-propelled grenades," Mustafa said.
Another man, called Chawki, said: "We need justice. People are being killed. Gadhafi's people shot my nephew."
"We need help from outside. We will never use force or harm anyone. We just want our civil rights...He (Gadhafi) has to go. There is no other way."
The town bore the marks of heavy fighting, with buildings in the center burnt and pockmarked with bullet holes, and burned-out vehicles left in the streets.
Meanwhile, a member of the Benghazi city council said the Libyan cities under rebel control have appointed an ex-justice minister to lead a provisional government.
Fathi Baja says opponents of Libyan dictator Muammar Gadhafi named Mustafa Abdel-Jalil to the provisional leadership post.
Baja said Sunday that Abdel-Jalil was chosen by the committees running the eastern Libyan cities now in the rebellion's hands.
On Saturday, Libya's top envoy to the U.S. also said Gadhafi opponents were rallying behind efforts to form an alternative government led by Abdel-Jalil, who has criticized Gadhafi's brutal crackdown on protesters.
It was not immediately clear how much support the proposed provisional leadership commands.
The uprising against Gadhafi began in Benghazi on Feb. 15. The rebels now control most of the eastern half of the country.
Moreover, the UN refugee agency said Sunday that nearly 100,000 people have fled violence in Libya in the past week, streaming into Tunisia and Egypt in a growing humanitarian crisis.
They include Tunisians, Egyptians, Libyans and third country nationals including Chinese and other Asians, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement. About half of the 100,000 have gone to Tunisia and half to Egypt.
"We call upon the international community to respond quickly and generously to enable these governments to cope with this humanitarian emergency," UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said.
The Geneva-based UNHCR began an airlift of shelter and other relief supplies on Saturday night to Djerba, Tunisia, and the aid will be brought to the Libyan border, it said.