A pro-Gadhafi supporter holds a poster of the Libyan Leader as he and others stage a small rally, during a government-provided tour for foreign media to see trucks carrying food aid which according to... (Associated Press) 
 
 Witnesses say government opponents are fighting forces loyal to leader Moammar Gadhafi for control of a key oil installation and airstrip on the coast of rebel-held eastern Libya. 
 
 They said the oil facility in the town of Brega had earlier on Wednesday fallen in the hands of a pro-Gadhafi force that arrived in the area in a huge convoy from the regime stronghold city of Sirte to the west. 
 
 The witnesses spoke from the outskirts of Brega, 85 miles (140 kilometers) south of the main rebel-held city in the east, Benghazi. The sound of screaming warplanes and the crackle of heavy gunfire could be heard as the witnesses spoke to The Associated Press by phone. 
 
 They said some of the regime forces were surrounded by rebels. 
 
 THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below. 
 
 BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) _ Forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi retook control of a key oil installation and port on the coast of the rebel-held eastern half of the country Wednesday and warplanes bombed an ammunition depot on the outskirts of a nearby town also controlled by the opposition, witnesses said. 
 
 Gadhafi's forces are escalating a counteroffensive after government opponents over the past two weeks seized control of the eastern half of the country and several cities and towns in the western half near the regime stronghold in the capital Tripoli. 
 
 On Tuesday, loyalists pushed back rebels from towns near Tripoli, where Gadhafi appears to be in full control. They also kept up military operations for a second straight day to try wrest back Zawiya, the city closest to the capital which is in the hands of government opponents. But rebels, backed by mutinous army forces and their weapons, have managed to repel those attacks and held on to Zawiya so far. 
 
 Ahmed Jerksi, manager of the massive oil installation in the eastern town of Brega on the Mediterranean coast, said pro-Gadhafi forces retook control of the facility at dawn without using force. Breqa is about 125 miles (200 kilometers) from Libya's second-largest city Benghazi, the nerve center of the rebel-held east. 
 
 There are about 4,000 oil workers at the Brega facility and there had been at least one checkpoint around it which was guarded by a small contingent of armed rebel forces from the area. But there were no reports of clashes between the two sides. 
 
 "It's not an attack. We are OK," Jerksi told The Associated Press. "The government troops came in to secure the whole area. Our concern is to maintain the facility." 
 
 Other witnesses told the AP that a rebel force was marching on Brega. 
 
 Also Wednesday, warplanes bombed an ammunition depot on the outskirts of the rebel-held eastern city of Ajdabiya, about 40 miles northeast of Brega and 85 miles (140 kilometers) south of Benghazi on the Mediterranean coast. 
 
 Libyan forces have launched repeated airstrikes during the two-week revolt but all of them have been reported to target facilities that store weapons in areas controlled by the rebellion. However, some air force pilots have said they bailed out because they were ordered to bomb civilians. Gadhafi's son Seif al-Islam has repeatedly denied that airstrikes have been used against civilians though he has acknowledged bombing weapons depots. 
 
 Witnesses told the AP they saw two warplanes bomb the eastern outskirts of Ajdabiya at 10 a.m. local time. They also said pro-Gadhafi forces were advancing on the city of about 150,000 people, some 470 miles (750 kilometers) east of the capital, Tripoli. 
 
 "I see two jets bombing now," said one witness who, like the others, spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared reprisals. Another witness said rebel forces were rushing to the western side of Ajdabiya to meet the advancing pro-Gadhafi force. 
 
 "We are ready to repel their attack," said the witness. 
 
 Gadhafi's regime retook at least two towns in the western half of the country near Tripoli in the past few days and threatened a third in recent days, while rebels repulsed attacks on three other key areas _ the city of Misrata east of Tripoli, the city of Zawiya west of the capital, and the mountain town of Zintan south of the capital. 
 
 One of those retaken by the pro-Gadhafi forces was the strategic mountain town of Gharyan, the largest in the Nafusa Mountains, which overlooks Tripoli, a resident said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of government retaliation. 
 
 The town fell after dark Friday in a surprise attack, and the government troops detained officers who defected to the rebels and drew up lists of wanted protesters and started searching for them, the resident added. 
 
 Gadhafi supporters also have said they were in control of the city of Sabratha, west of Tripoli, which has seemed to go back and forth between the two camps in the past week. 
 
 But witnesses in Zawiya, 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of the capital, said rebels repulsed a pro-Gadhafi offensive in six hours of gunbattles overnight between Monday and Tuesday. 
 
 In Misrata, 125 miles (200 kilometers) east of Tripoli, pro-Gadhafi troops who control part of an air base on the city's outskirts tried to advance Monday. But they were repulsed by opposition forces, who included residents with automatic weapons and defected army units allied with them, one of the opposition fighters said. 
 
 The opposition controls most of the air base, and one fighter in the city said dozens of anti-Gadhafi gunmen have arrived from farther east in recent days as reinforcements. 
 
 In Zintan, 75 miles (120 kilometers) south of Tripoli, residents said an attack by pro-Gadhafi forces Monday night was the second since the city fell in rebel hands late last month. But, they added, Gadhafi's loyalists were bringing in reinforcements. 
 
 ____ 
 
 Michael reported from Tripoli, Libya. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Jim Muir: "There are thousands upon thousands of people waiting desperately to cross that border" 
 
 The UN has called for a mass humanitarian evacuation of people fleeing Libya for Tunisia, saying the border situation is at "crisis point". 
 
 Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said thousands of lives were at stake. Some 75,000 people have fled to Tunisia since unrest began and 40,000 more are waiting to cross, the UN says. 
 
 The organisation has voted to suspend Libya from its Human Rights Council. 
 
 Beleaguered Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi has rejected calls to leave. 
 
 He has played down the unrest in the country and is trying to regain areas held by opponents of his rule in the west. The protesters have control of major towns in the east. 
 
 Mr Ban said reports had suggested about 1,000 people had so far died in the Libyan unrest. 
 
 Meanwhile there has a series of huge explosions in the capital Tripoli, caused by a fuel tanker which overturned. It is not clear if the incident was caused by an act of sabotage. 
 
 And pro-Gaddafi forces have taken the eastern town of al-Brayqa, reports the BBC's Nick Springate in nearby Ajdabiya. 
 
 Our correspondent says opposition forces are moving to engage with Gaddafi loyalists near Ajdabiya itself. 
 
 'Strong message' 
 
 The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said it was urgently appealing, along with the International Organisation for Migration, for governments to engage in "a massive humanitarian evacuation of tens of thousands of Egyptians and other third country nationals". 
 
 Vietnamese, Indians, Turks, Tunisians, Chinese and Thai workers are among those stranded. 
 
 At the scene The massive influx has caused strains for Tunisia, a country which has been going through its own convulsions and where thousands of jobless young men have been trying to flee to Europe. There have been angry demonstrations at the border by local Tunisian youths denouncing the flood of Egyptian migrants in particular. Tunisian army forces have intervened to impose control and allow the flow to continue. They also fired in the air to disperse local Tunisian smugglers who wanted to take money from the Egyptians on promises of smuggling them home on boats. 
 
 The groups called for governments to supply "massive financial and logistical assets... including planes, boats and expert personnel". 
 
 "The two organisations deem this operation essential as the overcrowding at the border worsens by the hour," they said. 
 
 More than 75,000 people have crossed the Tunisian border since 19 February, most of them Egyptians, with 70,000 more leaving Libya via the Egyptian border. 
 
 On Tuesday Tunisian guards fired into the air to try to control the crowds. 
 
 Mr Ban said: "We need concrete action on the ground to provide humanitarian and medical assistance. Time is the essence. Thousands of lives are at stake." 
 
 He said the initial priority was food, water, sanitation and shelter followed by renewed efforts to return the evacuees home. 
 
 Antonio Guterres, head of the UN refugee agency, told the BBC: "We need a massive evacuation because we are witnessing now a huge humanitarian disaster." 
 
 World Food Programme executive director Josette Sheeran told the BBC food was being brought in by road and air, and bought locally, but supplies were under "deep stress". 
 
 The BBC's Jim Muir, at the border, says thousands of people are waiting desperately to cross. Some are being crushed in the crowds; many in a state of complete exhaustion. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The UN's Antonio Guterres warns of a humanitarian disaster in Libya 
 
 In voting to suspend Libya from the UN Human Rights Council, the resolution - passed by consensus by the UN membership - accused Libya of committing gross and systematic violations of human rights. 
 
 Mr Ban said: "These UN actions send a strong and important message - a message of great consequence within the region and beyond - that there is no impunity, that those who commit crimes against humanity will be punished, that fundamental principles of justice and accountability shall prevail." 
 
 The US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, said: "People who turn their guns on their own people have no place on the Human Rights Council." 
 
 The BBC's Barbara Plett at the UN says this resolution seals Col Gaddafi's isolation as it is the body that represents all member states - the one where Libya might have expected to have some support and it has none. 
 
 No-fly zone debate 
 
 However, our UN correspondent says there appears to be little appetite for a resolution imposing a no-fly zone over Libya, a move the UK in particular has been investigating. 
 
 US Defence Secretary Robert Gates warned that any military action over Libya, such as setting up a no-fly zone, must be carefully considered because of the potential consequences. 
 
 "We also have to think about, frankly, the use of the US military in another country in the Middle East," Mr Gates said, referring to the long US-led war in Iraq. 
 
 "So I think we're sensitive about all of these things, but we will provide the president with a full range of options," he said. 
 
 UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said the action could still be taken as "there have been occasions in the past when such a no-fly zone has had clear, legal, international justification even without a Security Council resolution". 
 
 However, there are few signs of consensus. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said there would be no no-fly zone without a UN resolution, while Russia has described a no-fly zone as "superfluous". 
 
 Protesters fear the Libyan air force could launch attacks to try to oust them from the towns they have won. 
 
 Although the opposition is fairly secure in the east, pro-Gaddafi forces are said to be circling a number of towns held by protesters in the west, including Zawiya, Nalut and Zintan. 
 
 Attacks on protesters in Zawiya, Zintan and Misrata, east of Tripoli, were repelled overnight on Monday. 
 
 In other developments: 
 
 The European Union is calling an extraordinary summit for 11 March to discuss the situation in Libya and unrest in other parts of North Africa and the Middle East 
 
 US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in testimony to the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, urged lawmakers not to cut funds on dealing with overseas crises. She said Libya "could become a peaceful democracy or it could face protracted civil war" 
 
 In an interview with BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen, US TV network ABC and the UK's Sunday Times newspaper on Monday, Col Gaddafi laughed at suggestions he would leave Libya. 
 
 He said true Libyans had not demonstrated against him and that his forces had not fired on protesters. ||||| Egyptian officials say two U.S. warships have entered the Suez Canal on their way to the Mediterranean, moving closer to the Libyan coast after orders from Defense Secretary Robert Gates. 
 
 An Egyptian woman stands as the US amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge sails in the Suez canal in Ismailia, Egypt, Wednesday, March 2, 2011. Egyptian officials say two U.S. warships have entered the... (Associated Press) 
 
 An Egyptian watches US amphibious assault ships USS Kearsarge as it sails at the Suez canal in Ismailia , Egypt, Wednesday, March 2, 2011. Egyptian officials say two U.S. warships have entered the Suez... (Associated Press) 
 
 An Egyptian watches the US amphibious assault ship the USS Kearsarge sails in the Suez canal in Ismailia, Egypt, Wednesday, March 2, 2011. Egyptian officials say two U.S. warships have entered the Suez... (Associated Press) 
 
 The officials say amphibious assault ships USS Kearsarge and USS Ponce, entered the canal on Wednesday morning from the Red Sea. They say USS Kearsarge is carrying some 42 helicopters on board. 
 
 The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to the media. 
 
 Gates said on Tuesday he had ordered two ships into the Mediterranean and he is sending 400 Marines to the vessels to replace some troops that left recently for Afghanistan. 
 
 Gates also said any military action in Libya must be carefully weighed because of broad consequences for the region.
– 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.