Rebel forces in the city closest to Libya’s capital braced for a possible counterattack Sunday by troops loyal to Moammar Gadhafi as opposition leaders in the east announced a new transitional government.

Hundreds of opposition fighters with tanks and truck-mounted anti-aircraft guns reportedly occupied the center of Zawiya, about 30 miles west of of the capital of Tripoli, as Gadhafi forces surrounded the city’s outskirts.

The tricolor flag of the former Libyan monarchy — now become symbol of revolution — flew from one of the bullet-riddled buildings in Zawiya, according to media reports. Hundreds of people chanted “Gadhafi out” and “Free, Free Libya.”

The Associated Press said most streets were blocked by palm tree trunks or metal barricades, and an effigy of the Libyan leader hung from a light pole in the main square with “Execute Gadhafi” emblazoned across its chest.

Militiamen and pro-Gadhafi troops were repelled Thursday when they launched attacks trying to take back opposition-held territory in Zawiya and Misurata in fighting that killed at least 30 people.

Gadhafi loyalists remain in control of the capital, Tripoli, which was reported to be quiet early Sunday, with most stores closed and long lines outside the few banks and bakeries open for business. Traffic in the city was close to its normal level.

Residents thronged Tripoli’s banks Sunday after state TV announced that each family would receive $400 as well as credits for phone service and interest-free loans to buy apartments.

Protesters Say They Don’t Want Foreign Intervention

A bloody government crackdown on the uprising that began nearly two weeks ago in the eastern city of Benghazi prompted the U.N. Security Council to slap sanctions on the regime Saturday. The resolution imposes a travel ban and foreign asset freeze on Gaddafi and his inner circle as well as a weapons embargo against the country.

It also demands an immediate end to violence that it says may amount to crimes against humanity and refers the regime’s crackdown on protesters to the International Criminal Court for possible prosecution.

“The text sends a strong message that gross violations of basic human rights will not be tolerated and those responsible for grave crimes will be held accountable,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said after the unanimous vote by all 15 member nations.

NPR’s Lourdes Garcia-Navarro said the vote is being met with a more muted response among anti-government protesters in the liberated east of Libya. They welcomed the U.N. action, but feel the international community didn’t move until foreign nationals were evacuated out of the country. Protesters also made clear that they do not welcome foreign intervention in Libya.

“They don’t want to be rescued, they don’t want any military intervention,” Garcia-Navarro reported from Benghazi. “They have done this themselves, they say, and they will get rid of Moammar Gadhafi finally themselves, as well.”

A number of former top aides have deserted Gadhafi since the uprising began 11 days ago, and even the Libyan dictator’s Ukrainian nurse reportedly plans to flee the violence and return home.

Halyna Kolotnytska, 38, is joining senior government officials, diplomats and pilots who have left Gadhafi’s inner circle, according to Ukrainian newspaper reports citing Kolotnytska’s daughter Tetyana.

Ex-Justice Minister Chosen To Head Opposition

As Gadhafi’s control over the country dwindles, opposition leaders on Sunday appointed a former justice minister who defected in the early days of the uprising to head a national council. Mustafa Abdel-Jalil was chosen by the committees running the eastern Libyan cities now in the rebellion’s hands, according to Benghazi city council member Fathi Baja.

“It’s a symbol here, people say, of the fact that they will never acquiesce to be under Gadhafi’s rule,” Garcia-Navarro said in Benghazi, which rebels have described as the capital of “Free Libya.”

Abdel-Jalil, who resigned last week, has accused Gadhafi of ordering the 1988 bombing of the Pan Am flight that killed 270 people, mostly Americans, over Lockerbie, Scotland. The bomber, Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, was released from prison amid controversy and returned to Tripoli in August 2009 on the grounds that he was suffering from prostate cancer and would die soon.

In an interview with The Sunday Times of London, Abdel-Jalil said the bomber threatened to provide evidence that Gadhafi masterminded the bombing and blackmailed the Libyan leader into securing his release. Gadhafi plowed $80,000 a month into a fund that paid for legal fees, lobbying and family visits to the prison, according to the Times report.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague urged Gadhafi to resign, telling the BBC on Sunday: “Of course it is time for Col. Gadhafi to go.” He said the U.K. has revoked diplomatic immunity for Gadhafi and members of his family.

Italy has suspended a treaty with Libya that includes a nonaggression clause, amid the turmoil in the North African nation. The suspension removes a possible obstacle to Rome taking part in any peacekeeping operations in Libya or allowing the use of its military bases.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Sunday that “de facto suspension of this treaty, even without declaring it, is already a reality.” He said that when there is no government infrastructure, as is the case now in Libya, a treaty is suspended.

President Obama said Saturday that Gadhafi should step down.

“When a leader’s only means of staying in power is to use mass violence against his own people, he has lost the legitimacy to rule and needs to do what is right for his country by leaving now,” the White House said in a statement, summarizing a telephone conversation between Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the U.S. is revoking visas for senior Libyan officials and their immediate family members and that future applications from those blacklisted for travel to the United States would be rejected. Gadhafi “should go without further bloodshed and violence,” Clinton said in a separate statement.

The U.S. tone shifted sharply on Friday after Americans in Libya were evacuated from the country by ferry and a chartered airplane.

Amid Evacuations, Some Left Stranded

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees reported Sunday that nearly 100,000 people have fled over Libya’s borders into neighboring Tunisia and Egypt — creating a growing humanitarian crisis.

“We call upon the international community to respond quickly and generously to enable these governments to cope with this humanitarian emergency,” U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said.

Western nationals have scrambled to get out of Libya as the level of chaos continues to rise. In a daring rescue Saturday, British military planes entered Libyan air space to collect 150 people, Defense Secretary Liam Fox said. The C-130 Hercules planes, carrying Britons and other nationals, safely landed in Malta after picking up the civilians south of the eastern Libyan port of Benghazi, he said.

But NPR’s Garcia-Navarro reports that others in Benghazi haven’t been as fortunate.

“There are people who have been left behind, citizens of poorer countries who simply haven’t been able to get a boat out of here,” she said. “I’m talking about Bangladeshis, Somalis, and I’m also talking about sub-Saharan Africans.”

Tens of thousands of foreigners in Libya work at oil installations and construction companies, and many of them are sub-Saharan Africans. Some of them left stranded in Benghazi said they have been targets of violence because people believed that they were mercenaries sent in by Gadhafi to quell the unrest in the east.

“They tell terrifying stories of having to hide in the desert to avoid beatings and even killings,” Garcia-Navarro said.

Deadly Clash Reported In Oman

Riot police in Oman clashed with pro-democracy protesters Sunday, killing at least one in a sharp escalation of tensions in the tightly ruled Persian Gulf nation.

Witnesses told the AP that police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters in Sohar, about 120 miles northwest of the capital, Muscat. The deadly clash marked the second day of protests and suggests that a government shake-up by Oman’s ruler on Saturday failed to quell the tensions.

With reporting from NPR’s Lourdes Garcia-Navarro in Benghazi, Larry Miller in London and Linda Fasulo in New York. This story contains material from The Associated Press. Copyright 2011 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.