<p>On Martyrs' Square, the epicentre of clashes, 200-300 loyalists proclaimed their love for Gaddafi, waving his portrait and the regime's green flag as foreign journalists arrived on a government-organised visit.<br /><br />Barely a window remains intact and shelling has removed whole walls, but somehow the minaret has remained intact.<br /><br />The hotel that had served as the rebels' headquarters is ravaged.<br />"The bad guys have fled. There were still 35 or 40 of them yesterday (Thursday) with Kalashnikovs and higher-calibre weapons, but we disarmed them," said Walid, who claimed to be a student who volunteered to fight against the rebels.<br /><br />"We cannot live here without Muammar Gaddafi. He is the king of kings across Africa, not only in Libya," said Walid, a machine-gun slung across his shoulder.<br /><br />All around him soldiers danced on vehicles and waved weapons in the air as a government-chartered bus approached, full of international journalists being escorted around the battlefield.<br /><br />"I love Gaddafi", one of them shouted as the bus came near.<br />Zawiyah, a prosperous dormitory town 40 kilometres west of Tripoli, was retaken by Gaddafi loyalists on Wednesday night, officials and residents said.<br /><br />"According to an initial toll, 14 people, from both sides, were killed (in Zawiyah)," Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaaim told a news conference in Tripoli yesterday.<br />"We will know more about the number of dead and those arrested in the next few days," he added.<br /><br />Witness to the fighting have told AFP that fierce battles were fought in Zawiyah last week, some even speaking of a "massacre" while other said that a number of people have been arrested since loyalists captured the town.<br /><br />Zawiya, home to 250,000 inhabitants, is largely deserted yesterday. Shops are closed and many iron shutters have been ripped by gunfire or blasts.<br /><br />Signs of dissent are still visible despite efforts by the authorities to erase them by whitewhashing walls and the faint outline of a graffiti that reads "down with the regime" can still be made out.<br /><br />A makeshift cemetery in the town's Martyrs' Square where the rebel buried their dead has been crushed by tanks.</p>
<p>On Martyrs' Square, the epicentre of clashes, 200-300 loyalists proclaimed their love for Gaddafi, waving his portrait and the regime's green flag as foreign journalists arrived on a government-organised visit.<br /><br />Barely a window remains intact and shelling has removed whole walls, but somehow the minaret has remained intact.<br /><br />The hotel that had served as the rebels' headquarters is ravaged.<br />"The bad guys have fled. There were still 35 or 40 of them yesterday (Thursday) with Kalashnikovs and higher-calibre weapons, but we disarmed them," said Walid, who claimed to be a student who volunteered to fight against the rebels.<br /><br />"We cannot live here without Muammar Gaddafi. He is the king of kings across Africa, not only in Libya," said Walid, a machine-gun slung across his shoulder.<br /><br />All around him soldiers danced on vehicles and waved weapons in the air as a government-chartered bus approached, full of international journalists being escorted around the battlefield.<br /><br />"I love Gaddafi", one of them shouted as the bus came near.<br />Zawiyah, a prosperous dormitory town 40 kilometres west of Tripoli, was retaken by Gaddafi loyalists on Wednesday night, officials and residents said.<br /><br />"According to an initial toll, 14 people, from both sides, were killed (in Zawiyah)," Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaaim told a news conference in Tripoli yesterday.<br />"We will know more about the number of dead and those arrested in the next few days," he added.<br /><br />Witness to the fighting have told AFP that fierce battles were fought in Zawiyah last week, some even speaking of a "massacre" while other said that a number of people have been arrested since loyalists captured the town.<br /><br />Zawiya, home to 250,000 inhabitants, is largely deserted yesterday. Shops are closed and many iron shutters have been ripped by gunfire or blasts.<br /><br />Signs of dissent are still visible despite efforts by the authorities to erase them by whitewhashing walls and the faint outline of a graffiti that reads "down with the regime" can still be made out.<br /><br />A makeshift cemetery in the town's Martyrs' Square where the rebel buried their dead has been crushed by tanks.</p>