Libya update

6.28pm: As the Gaddafi regime deploys tanks and hundreds of troops in all-out effort to take the town of Zawiya, my colleague Peter Beaumont reports from nearby Tripoli on an escalation in the Libyan conflict:

If it is confirmed, the defeat of opposition forces in Zawiyah, just 30 miles from Tripoli – already claimed twice by the regime in recent days – would mark a significant psychological moment for Gaddafi.
Although most sources were suggesting the rebellion in Zawiyah had been crushed, a resident named Ibrahim claimed combat was continuing.
The Gaddafi regime has cut all mobile and landline communications with the town and accounts of today's fighting came from witnesses who had driven out of the combat area and one who had climbed on a roof to find a phone signal.
Residents described a hail of bullets, with women and children being killed and families trapped within their homes.
The violence of this assault marks a disturbing escalation in the developing civil war in Libya, suggesting that the regime has now decided to pursue a no-holds barred strategy to crush the rebellion, despite the growing threats of international action.
Witnesses in Zawiyah said many buildings, including mosques, had been destroyed and rebel forces had used loudhailers to call on residents to help defend positions in the town centre.