On 11 June, a spokesman for the rebel National Transitional Council said that the opposition fighters were in control of a large area on the western side of the city.

Later the same day, Reuters confirmed that the coastal road was shut down and deserted, except for a large number of soldiers, police and armed men in civilian clothes.

Moussa Ibrahim, a Libyan government spokesman, insisted that only 20 to 25 rebel guerrilla fighters had infiltrated the city and were being surrounded, and that they posed no threat to the regime.

The reporters saw secure streets and confirmed that the pro-Gaddafi green flag was flying at the main square, where hours earlier rebels had claimed to have surrounded the loyalists and were attacking them from three sides.

[3] On 13 June, contact with the rebel spokesman in the city, who was updating journalists on the situation, had ceased and the highway running through Zawiya toward the Tunisian border was re-opened.