Az-Zawiya

Zawia,, is a city in northwestern Libya, situated on the Libyan coastline of the Mediterranean Sea about 45km west of Tripoli, in the historic region of Tripolitania. Zawia is the capital of the Zawiya District.OverviewIn the Libyan censuses of 1973 and 1984, the city counted about 91,603 inhabitants; it was then – and possibly continues to be today – the fifth city-largest city in Libya by population (after Tripoli, Benghazi, Misrata and Bayda). In 2011, Zawia was estimated to have a population of about 200,000 people, most of whom were concentrated in the city. Zawia has a university named the University of Zawia, founded in 1988. There is also an oil field near the city and Zawia has one of the two most important oil refineries in Libya. Zawia was the site of some of the fiercest fighting in the Libyan civil war, as it controls the vital route between the national capital Tripoli and the Tunisian border.Libyan civil warDuring the Libyan civil war, severe fighting between the Libyan opposition and the government of Muammar Gaddafi has taken place in and around the city. In a phone call specifically aimed at its residents, Gaddafi said the protesters were young people that had been duped into "destruction and sabotage" with drugs and alcohol. On 8 March 2011 it was reported that Gaddafi forces had 'torn the town to ashes', having used air power, and 50 tanks, to destroy the town. According to one witness, "the city is in ruins...everyone on the street is shot on sight." According to another report regime violence began to escalate on the morning of the 6 March 2011 and intensified in the following days – " Children have been shot while sitting in front of their houses, the hospital has been bombarded. I don't know where the injured are going to go."