LIBYA THIS MORNING – AT 9:50 A.M. ET:  From The New York Times:

TRIPOLI, Libya — Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s militia stormed the rebels controlling the town of Zawiyah on Saturday morning in what two residents described as a “massacre.”

“I am watching neighbors dying unarmed in front of their homes,” one resident said in a telephone interview, with the sounds of heavy weapons and machine-gun fire in the background. The resident said the militias were using tanks and heavy artillery, attacking from both the east and west gates of the town. “I don’t know how many are being killed, but I know my neighborhood is being killed,” the resident said.

And...

But four hours after the fighting began, two rebels said in phone interviews that after heavy casualties, the battle was over. They said they held the center of town, but a tight military siege made it impossible to enter or leave. It was impossible to determine the number of casualties in the latest fighting.

COMMENT:  Western aircraft, or the grossly ineffective UN, should be dropping leaflets informing Qaddafi's forces that they could be charged with war crimes if this continues.  It might prompt some to defect. 

There are very few reporters in front-line positions in Libya, so it is difficult to verify information, including that provided by rebel spokesmen.  But, at least at this hour, Qaddafi shows no signs of surrendering or even purchasing a villa in some nice African city.

March 5, 2011