U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates speaks with the media after a meeting of NATO defense ministers at NATO headquarters on Thursday, March 10, 2011. NATO says it has started round-the-clock surveillance... (Associated Press) 
 
 With fierce barrages of tank and artillery fire, Moammar Gadhafi's loyalists threw rebels into a frantic retreat from a strategic oil port Thursday in a counteroffensive that reversed the opposition's advance toward the capital of Tripoli and now threatens its positions in the east. 
 
 The rout came as the U.S. director of national intelligence stressed that Gadhafi's military was stronger than it has been described and said that "in the longer term ... the regime will prevail." 
 
 Hundreds of rebels in cars and trucks mounted with machine guns sped eastward on the Mediterranean coastal road in a seemingly disorganized flight from Ras Lanouf as an overwhelming force of rockets and shells pounded a hospital, mosque and other buildings in the oil complex. Doctors and staff at the hospital were hastily evacuated along with wounded from fighting from the past week. 
 
 The opposition, however, made some diplomatic gains. France became the first country to recognize the rebels' eastern-based governing council, and an ally of President Nicolas Sarkozy said his government was planning "targeted operations" to defend civilians if the international community approves. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she would meet with opposition leaders in the U.S., Egypt and Tunisia. 
 
 In Tripoli, Gadhafi's son Seif al-Islam vowed to retake the eastern half of the country, which has been in opposition hands since early in the 3-week-old uprising. 
 
 "I have two words to our brothers and sisters in the east: We're coming," he told a cheering crowd of young supporters. The son depicted Libyans in the east as being held "hostage" by terrorists. 
 
 Gadhafi's government sent a text message to Tripoli residents, warning imams at mosques against allowing protests after Friday prayers. The message quoted Saudi cleric Sheik Saleh Fawzan, a member of the Saudi Supreme Scholars Council, as saying it was "unacceptable" for any imam "who incites people (or) causes disturbances of the society in any mosque." 
 
 There were demonstrations after prayers for the past two Fridays, and militiamen used tear gas and live ammunition to disperse the crowds who had gathered in mosques. There were an undetermined number of deaths after the Feb. 25 demonstrations. 
 
 The retreat was a heavy blow for the ragtag rebel forces of armed civilians and mutinous army units that only days before had confidently charged west, boasting they would march the hundreds of miles (kilometers) to "liberate" Tripoli. 
 
 There were no concrete signs of Western moves toward military assistance that the opposition has been pleading for. A rebel spokesman went beyond repeated calls for a no-fly zone to prevent Gadhafi's air force from harrying opposition fighters and said the West should carry out direct strikes against regime troops. 
 
 "We have requested for all steps to be taken to protect the Libyan people. We believe the U.N. can do that. The bombardment of mercenaries and Gadhafi troop camps are among our demands," Abdel-Hafidh Ghoga, a spokesman of the governing council, told reporters in the opposition's eastern bastion of Benghazi. 
 
 The rebel capture of Ras Lanouf a week ago had been a major victory as they pushed along Libya's long Mediterranean coastline toward Tripoli, in the far west of Libya. A day after seizing it, their forces charged farther ahead, reaching the outskirts of Sirte, Gadhafi's hometown and a stronghold in the center of the country. 
 
 They were met there by a heavy counterattack that in the past week steadily pushed them back toward Ras Lanouf, 380 miles (615 kilometers) east of Tripoli, even as the rebels tried to build supply lines to keep up momentum. 
 
 The regime's offensive appeared to build in force. On Thursday morning, rebels were bringing in heavier weapons such as multiple-rocket launcher trucks and small tanks to the front lines just west of Ras Lanouf. But they came under a powerful barrage of shelling that pushed them back along the flat, desert scrubland into the tiny oil port. 
 
 A torrent of artillery and tank shells pounded around the facilities and the adjacent residential areas _ long deserted amid the fighting. 
 
 Akram al-Zwei, an opposition leader in nearby Ajdabiya, said gunboats off shore joined the bombardment, though that could not be independently confirmed. He said four battalions of pro-Gadhafi troops were involved in the assault, battling the opposition's civilian militias and an eastern-based special commando unit, the Saiqa 36 Battalion, that had joined the rebellion. 
 
 Rebels fought back with rocket fire and anti-aircraft guns. But the fighters, mostly armed with assault rifles, appeared outgunned. "We don't have any heavy weapons," shouted one fighter, named Ali. 
 
 By the afternoon, many rebels were speeding east from Ras Lanouf in a frantic evacuation, most converging on the opposition-held oil port of Brega and Ajdabiya, 100 miles (160 kilometers) away. "Everyone just started leaving. It's not organized," said one retreating fighter. "The weapons we have just don't reach them." 
 
 Ras Lanouf's main hospital was hit by artillery or an airstrike, and the rebels pulled their staff out and evacuated patients to Brega and Ajdabiya, said Gebril Hewada, a doctor on the opposition's health committee in Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city. 
 
 At least four rebel fighters were killed, 35 wounded and 65 missing in the fighting, according to doctors in Brega. 
 
 It was not clear whether government forces completely held Ras Lanouf. Al-Zwei and Ghoga, the opposition spokesman, claimed it remained in rebel hands. 
 
 A rebel fighter who fled the city after nightfall said it still had not fallen. 
 
 "They are still bombing it from the air, the sea and with rockets, but the ground forces have not come in," said Mohammed el-Gheriani, carrying a Kalashnikov rifle. 
 
 But it appeared that Brega, 70 miles (116 kilometers) farther east, could also be under threat. During the day, a warplane struck an empty area in Brega, which has also largely been evacuated of residents and personnel. 
 
 "We need help from the international community, but we just hear promises," said Mohammed Ali al-Zwei, a 48-year-old rebel fighter. "They are doing nothing." 
 
 Taking back Ras Lanouf would be a major victory for Gadhafi, pushing his zone of control farther along the coast. His regime has also claimed a victory in the west, saying Wednesday it recaptured Zawiya, the closest rebel-held city to the capital, after a six-day siege. Western journalists in Tripoli were taken late Wednesday to a stadium on the outskirts of Zawiya that was filled with Gadhafi loyalists waving green flags and launching fireworks. But the journalists were not allowed to visit Zawiya's main square, and the extent of government control was not known in the city, located on Tripoli's western doorstep. 
 
 Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Qaid reiterated the government's claim Thursday, reading a military statement that Zawiya had been recaptured at 11 a.m. Wednesday and journalists would be taken Friday to visit the city. 
 
 "Now the forces are cleaning the city of the extremist armed militants," Qaid told reporters. He said "the security forces and civilians" had seized weapons and ammunition, including anti-aircraft guns, mortar shells and anti-tank missiles. 
 
 At a U.S. Senate hearing, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said there was no indication that Gadhafi would step down and offer a speedy resolution to the crisis. 
 
 "Gadhafi is in this for the long haul," he said. "From all evidence that we have ... he appears to be hunkering down for the duration." 
 
 Pressed on which side had the momentum, he was even clearer: "I think in the longer term that the regime will prevail." 
 
 Still, Western countries appeared to be growing more open in their embrace of the rebel movement. But they were struggling with how to translate that into concrete support. 
 
 France said it planned to exchange ambassadors with the rebels' Interim Governing Council after Sarkozy met with two representatives from the group, based in Benghazi. 
 
 "It breaks the ice," said Mustafa Gheriani, an opposition spokesman. "We expect Italy to do it, and we expect England to do it." 
 
 French activist-intellectual Bernard Henri-Levy sat in the meeting and said France was planning "targeted operations" to defend civilians if the interim council demands them and the international community approves. Henri-Levy did not elaborate and the French government declined to comment, so it was not clear if he was describing a new, more aggressive plan for intervention. 
 
 NATO has said it is drawing up plans for a no-fly zone but would only act with the approval of the U.N. Security Council. Britain and France have backed the rebels' calls for a no-fly zone. 
 
 But the U.S. showed caution, warning against a go-it-alone approach. 
 
 "Absent international authorization, the United States acting alone would be stepping into a situation whose consequences are unforeseeable," Clinton said. "We're looking to see whether there is any willingness in the international community to provide any authorization for further steps." 
 
 Clinton said the U.S. was suspending its relationship with Libya's remaining envoys to the country, although the move falls short of severing diplomatic relations. She said she would meet with Libyan opposition figures when she travels to Egypt and Tunisia next week, marking the highest level contact between the U.S. and the anti-Gadhafi elements. 
 
 NATO said it had started round-the-clock surveillance of Libyan airspace, and British Foreign Secretary William Hague said a meeting of EU foreign ministers would discuss how to isolate the regime. 
 
 U.N. Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz of Egypt expressed serious concern about the more than 1 million Egyptians still in Libya, "and we are afraid that the tragic events that happened in Iraq using human shields to protect air defense systems on the ground would be repeated." He added that he had "no concrete information" about whether that was happening. 
 
 Germany said it froze billions in assets of the Libyan Central Bank and other state-run agencies. The U.S., Britain, Switzerland, Austria and other countries have also frozen Gadhafi's assets. 
 
 "The brutal suppression of the Libyan freedom movement can now no longer be financed from funds that are in German banks," Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle said. 
 
 The Libyan government tried to stave off tough action, sending envoys to Egypt, Portugal and Greece. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writers Maggie Michael in Tripoli; Zeina Karam in Cairo; John Heilprin in Geneva; Elaine Ganley in Paris; Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations; Don Melvin and Robert Burns in Brussels; Bradley Klapper in Washington; and Alan Clendenning in Madrid contributed to this report. ||||| Sponsored Links 
 
 Military experts and Libyan rebels say that Libya's abrupt promise of a cease-fire today, just hours after the U.N. voted for a no-fly zone, is canny brinksmanship by Col. Moammar Gadhafi designed to buy time in his escalating cat-and-mouse game with the West.Rebel commander Khalifa Heftir told reporters in Benghazi today that Gadhafi was "bluffing," and CNN reported today that residents in the battered coastal city of Misrata said they were still under bombardment."What cease-fire," asked a doctor in Misrata. "We're under the bombs. This morning they are burning the city. There are deaths everywhere."Gadhafi is secretly moving his heavy artillery out of the open and parking them in between houses so Libyans will be used as human shields to protect the weaponry from any Western air strikes, said a Libyan activist who just left the country."He's still bombarding cities, but what he's focusing on right now is protecting his artillery," Madghis Madi, a coordinator of the 17th of February Revolution, told AOL News today."He's moving about 250 tanks and rocket launchers in some towns in the Nafusa mountains. That way he can blame the West if any civilians are killed."Madi and others interviewed by AOL News say that while the cease-fire announcement could be genuine, it could be a tactical move to neutralize U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates' stated desire to take out Gadhafi's defense as part of a no-fly zone and confuse the West."This looks like mischief making," said former British Brigadier Ben Barry, a former battalion commander during the Bosnian war now with the International Institute for Strategic Studies."I think this could be a spoiling tactic to foul up the West's plans. We heard a lot of cease-fires announced in Bosnia, but not that many were genuine."Experts said the West will still go ahead with the no-fly zone despite Gadhafi's announcement. Britain took the lead today, sending Tornado and Typhoon fighters to air bases in Italy and Cyprus. Bases in Spain, Sicily, Crete and Malta may also be used in the operation."The clock is ticking," British Prime Minister David Cameron said in Parliament today.A large naval flotilla is stationed off the Libyan coast and includes three America warships and two British frigates. Britain, France and NATO were also holding emergency meetings today about the scope of military action under the no-fly zone."We are very determined," Yves Sorokobi, a spokesman for U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, said on Sky News today. "We mean business."But in the event of a cease-fire, rationale for a pre-emptive strike of Gadhafi's air and ground defense could evaporate despite the reports from Libya that government forces are still on the attack."With the announcement of a cease-fire, there could be less of a justification to take out his weaponry," military analyst Christian Le Miere said. "Gadhafi is a very shrewd operator, and that could be well what he wants."The high-stakes, High Noon standoff between Gadhafi and the West began to come to a head late Thursday when the United Nations Security Council voted to impose a wide-ranging no-fly zone over Libya and take "all necessary measures," including armed intervention, to prevent a humanitarian disaster.Just hours later, Gadhafi's deputy Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa told reporters at a Libya hotel that the Libyan government had begun an "immediate ceasefire and stoppage of all military operations."But Koussa's appearance in place of Gadhafi, who has not been shy about surfacing in public since the popular uprising began Feb. 17, made many very skeptical."These are part of the psychological games Gadhafi plays with Libyans and the rest of the world," said Mohamed Eljahmi, a Libyan-American activist who is contact with some of the rebels."Why was it Koussa and not Gadhafi? Could it be that Gadhafi can later say he never authorized Koussa to announce a no-fly zone? This distances Gadhafi and gives him an out. They can say Moussa Koussa went out on his own."Barry said he even wondered whether Koussa "represented some peace initiative within the Libyan government that is not in accordance with Gadhafi." ||||| Moammar Gadhafi is making preparations for a departure from Libya with his family for possible exile in Tunisia, U.S. officials have told NBC News, citing intelligence reports. 
 
 One official suggested it was possible that Gadhafi would leave within days, NBC News reported. 
 
 The information obtained by NBC News follows a series of optimistic statements this week from U.S. officials that Gadhafi would soon give up the five-month-old fight and and leave Libya. 
 
 In an on-camera forum at the National Defense University this week, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said, "I think the sense is that Gadhafi's days are numbered." 
 
 The officials could provide no further details as to conditions or precise timing for Gadhafi's departure, NBC said, and the news report emphasized that there was no guarantee that Gadhafi would follow through on any plans to flee. 
 
 Gadhafi is becoming more isolated in the capital, Tripoli. 
 
 Rebel fighters are closing in from the west and the south while NATO controls the seas to the north. The opposition is in control of most of the eastern half of the country and has declared Benghazi, 620 miles east of Tripoli, as its de facto capital. 
 
 Rebel forces have managed to surround Tripoli and appear to be attempting to cut off supplies and fuel to trigger a collapse, NBC News reported. Families were seen driving away from the city. 
 
 Refinery taken 
 
 The intelligence reports were revealed as opposition fighters in Libya's western mountains claimed control Thursday of the country's last functioning oil refinery, a blow to Gadhafi's regime in a week of stunning rebel advances. 
 
 The refinery is located in the strategic city of Zawiya, where rebels have made great strides in battles with government forces since their initial assault on Saturday. 
 
 "We have full control over the Zawiya oil refinery and we have liberated the whole city except two main streets," Col. Ali Ahrash told The Associated Press. 
 
 The capture of the 120,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Zawiya is not expected to have a major impact on Gadhafi's ability to secure fuel. 
 
 The flow of crude to the refinery from fields in the southwest of Libya had largely been halted since midsummer. The refinery was believed to be running at about one-third of its normal capacity, drawing mainly on crude oil that was in its storage tanks. Zawiya mostly produced fuel oil, not gasoline. 
 
 The BBC reported that one of its news crews were taken around the refinery by rebels and that there was no sign of pro-Gadhafi troops. 
 
 Zawiyais is just 30 miles to the east of Tripoli, along the Mediterranean coast. 
 
 A Libyan rebel fighter carries a rocket-propelled grenade in Sabratha, 50 miles west of Tripoli, on Wednesday. 
 
 Ahrash, who was in Benghazi, said rebels have control of the cities of Surman, Sabratha and Zwara, as well as the road to Tunisia from Tripoli. 
 
 Families fleeing their homes to avoid a possible rebel assault on Tripoli described growing tensions and deteriorating living conditions in the capital: Security forces have blanketed the city with checkpoints, gun battles are heard after nightfall and power outages last days. 
 
 Explosions in Tripoli 
 
 Early Friday morning explosions rocked Gadhafi's main compound of Bab al-Aziziyah. 
 
 Seven thunderous blasts could be felt at a Tripoli hotel where foreign journalists stay. 
 
 An Associated Press correspondent watched flames from the bombs fall from the sky as NATO jets circled over the compound. 
 
 Five loud explosions also shook the center of Tripoli on Thursday afternoon, possibly striking near Gadhafi's compound. NATO jets flew overhead minutes after the blasts. It wasn't immediately clear what was hit or if there were civilian casualties. NATO has bombarded military targets all over Libya since March when a no-fly zone was instituted. 
 
 Besides the seizure of the refinery, Ahrash told the AP that rebels were making progress in taking Zawiya, a city of 200,000 people. 
 
 He said Gadhafi troops were still in control of Gamal Abdel-Nasser Street and were hiding in the hospital there. Ahrash said Omar Mokhtar Street was still under Gadhafi forces control and that a few more troops were patrolling in eastern Zawiya. 
 
 Since the rebels entered Zawiya last week — their most dramatic advance yet after months of stalemate — Gadhafi's troops have been pounding homes, mosques and streets with rockets and mortar fire. 
 
 "In the past three days we have lost 70 fighters and more than 55 were injured," he said.
– Libyan protesters are fighting to keep control of the areas they've taken as they increasingly clash with pro-Gadhafi forces. The latest: The two sides are fighting over a key oil installation and airstrip, the AP reports. They are located on the coast of eastern Libya, most of which is held by the rebels, but today Gadhafi supporters took back the oil facility as the rebels continued to fight. In the same area, pro-Gadhafi forces also retook control of a port and bombed an ammunition depot controlled by the rebels. The bombing is one of many airstrikes launched by Libyan forces against the rebels, all of which reportedly target only weapons facilities. But some air force pilots have refused to fly after they claim they were ordered to bomb civilians. Loyalists yesterday were able to push rebels back from some of the western towns near Tripoli, but protesters managed to hold onto Zawiyah, the city closest to the capital. Gadhafi's forces were able to reclaim control of two other towns near Tripoli and threaten a third, but rebels held on to three other areas near the capital. Two US warships entered the Suez Canal this morning en route to the Mediterranean, the AP adds. Defense Secretary Robert Gates ordered the USS Kearsarge, which has 42 helicopters on board, and the USS Ponce to move closer to the Libyan coast. Even so, Gates downplayed the possibility of America's military intervening, noting that it's not a good time for the US to enter into another Middle East war, the New York Times reports. He and Adm. Mike Mullen distanced themselves from comments by Hillary Clinton that a no-fly zone was an "active consideration." A BBC UN correspondent says other leaders also appear to be reluctant to impose a no-fly zone over Libya. Meanwhile, the BBC reports, thousands of people are waiting to cross the border and flee Libya for Tunisia. The UN Secretary General says thousands of lives are at stake, and the UN wants a mass humanitarian evacuation. Click for background on this crisis. More from the BBC: Reports suggest 1,000 have died in the unrest so far, and an overturned fuel tanker resulted in large explosions in Tripoli. No word on whether the tanker was sabotaged. Click for the latest on Libya.