Heavy machine-gun fire erupted early Sunday in the Libyan capital of Tripoli, including in the neighborhood of Moammar Gadhafi's residence, as hundreds of his supporters poured into the streets in celebration.
Libyan authorities said the unusually heavy gunfire that began around 5:30 a.m. was celebratory, claiming that government forces had retaken the oil port of Ras Lanouf, in central Libya. But residents of Ras Lanouf said Sunday that the opposition remained in control of the port.
Around 300 Gadhafi supporters drove passed the Bab al-Aziziya military camp where Gadhafi lives, waving flags and shooting in the air. Armed men in plainclothes were standing at the gates, also shooting in the air. It was not known if Gadhafi was in Tripoli.
The early morning gunfire rattled the capital as the conflict in Libya deepened, signaling an increasingly long and violent battle that could last weeks or months and veered the country ever closer to civil war.
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The Tuscaloosa News is a daily newspaper serving Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA, and the surrounding area in west central Alabama.
The newspaper is a member of the New York Times Regional Media Group, a subsidiary of the New York Times Company, through the corporate entity of NYT Holdings, Inc., an Alabama corporation. The New York Times Company acquired the News in 1985 from the Public Welfare Foundation, a charitable entity.[3] The News had been donated to that foundation by its owner Edward Marsh, along with other newspapers he owned, before his death in 1964.
