Forces loyal to Gaddafi have gained control over several crucial cities, Libyan state television reported, which opposition negates. AFP reports that protesters are in control of Ras Lanuf, while Reuters says Gaddafi’s forces advance toward Benghazi.

A Libyan state television channel has reported that forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi had recaptured complete control over several key cities, including oil port of Ras Lanuf, the city of Misrata, between Tripoli and Sirte, Zawiyah and Tobruk, which controls the road to the Egyptian border.

However, the AFP reporter said Ras Lanuf is still in the hands of rebels.

The Reuters agency stated that Gaddafi’s loyalists are heading for Libya's second largest city Benghazi in the country's east.

Troops also recaptured Tobruk, the television said, adding that there had been celebrations of the counter-offensive in the loyalist strongholds of Sirte, Gaddafi's hometown on the central coast, and Sebha in the south, as well as Tripoli.

The Associated Press reported that Tripoli woke to the crackle of heavy machine-gun fire that rattled the capital before dawn.

A government spokesman, Abdel-Majid al-Dursi, told the AP that the gunfire 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.

Opposition forces took the port on Saturday and pushed toward Gaddafi's hometown, even as government forces in tanks rolled into Zawiya, the opposition-held city closest to the capital.