(Previous CAIRO, adds quotes, details)
By Maria Golovnina
TRIPOLI, March 8 (Reuters) - Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi launched an artillery and tank attack on Zawiyah on Tuesday in a renewed attempt to capture the rebel-held town, according to a resident and an Arabic television station.
Gaddafi's forces had surrounded the strategic town that lies 50 km (30 miles) west of Tripoli near an important oil refinery, the Al Jazeera network said.
The resident said government forces were "trying to destroy the city", according to a friend who managed to make a brief phone call to Zawiyah on Tuesday.
Zawiyah, a town of about 200,000, has been the focus of heavy fighting between government forces and rebels but information was scarce and most telephone connections appeared to have been cut to the city since Sunday.
It has been generally impossible to reach residents and rebel fighters on the ground who had previously maintaned regular contact with journalists.
Reporters have been prevented from entering Zawiyah and other cities near the capital without an official escort. Some reporters who tried to reach the city independently have been detained by the authorities.
A Libyan man who lives in exile abroad said he managed to get through on Tuesday to a friend in the city who described scenes of fighting there in a brief conversation.
"My friend said it's miserable. He described that Gaddafi forces are trying to destroy the city. Many buildings are completely destroyed, including hospitals, electricity lines and generators," he said.
"People cannot run away, it's cordoned off. They cannot flee. All those who can fight are fighting, including teenagers. Children and women are being hidden."
He added: "They tried to evacuate. Their (Gaddafi forces) tanks are everywhere, firing. They (rebels) are fighting back. Gaddafi's army is not in control. The fighting is continuing."
A government spokesman, Mussa Ibrahim, said the government was in control of the city, adding however that a small group of fighters was still putting up resistance.
"The situation is very difficult. There are still pockets of resistance, maybe 30-40 people, hiding in the streets and in the cemetery. They are desperate," he told Reuters in Tripoli.
Other residents and the rebel spokesman in Zawiyah who had been speaking to journalists about developments have not been reachable since Sunday.
A visit to Zawiyah by Reuters reporters on March 5 showed rebel fighters were still firmly in control of a central square, with dozens of men with AK-47 rifles manning rooftops.
The rebels also had a number of tanks and armoured personnel carriers captured from the army as well as anti-aircraft guns mounted on pick-up vehicles and appeared determined to fight on.
Libyan elite forces encircling the city are a much mightier force, reinforced by well-trained soldiers, tanks and Russian-made Grad rocket launchers trained at the city.
One foreign journalist who was near Zawiyah on Monday said he heard heavy artillery fire coming from the direction of the city and saw dark plumes of smoke rising above it. (Additional reporting by Cairo bureau; Writing by Maria Golovnina; editing by Giles Elgood)
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