Libyan rebels rout Gaddafi forces in strategic town
By Angus MacSwan | Reuters – 25 minutes ago
AJDABIYAH, Libya (Reuters) - Libyan rebels backed by allied air strikes retook the strategic town of Ajdabiyah on Saturday after an all-night battle that suggested the tide is turning against Muammar Gaddafi's forces in the east.
To the west, Gaddafi's forces attacked insurgent-held Misrata, shelling the port with mortars and artillery, a rebel told Reuters.
One inhabitant said 115 people had been killed in Misrata in a week and snipers were still shooting people from rooftops.
In Ajdabiyah, rebel fighters danced on tanks, waved flags and fired in the air near buildings riddled with bullet holes. Half a dozen wrecked tanks lay near the eastern entrance to the town and the ground was strewn with empty shell casings.
Rebels said fighting had lasted through the night. By the town's western gate there were bodies of more than a dozen Gaddafi fighters, and an abandoned truckload of ammunition suggested Gaddafi forces had beaten a hasty retreat.
"Thank you Britain, thank you France, thank you America," said one rebel, praising the Western air strikes against Gaddafi targets.
Capturing Ajdabiyah, a gateway from western Libya to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi and the oil town of Tobruk, was a big morale boost for the rebels a week after coalition air strikes began to enforce a U.N.-mandated no-fly zone.
Western governments hope the raids, launched with the aim of protecting civilians, will also shift the balance of power in favor of the Arab world's most violent popular revolt.
But in Misrata, the only big insurgent stronghold left in Libya's west and cut off from the main rebel force to the east, Gaddafi forces on Saturday attacked the city from the west and the east, shelling the port with mortars and artillery, a rebel told Reuters.
"Gaddafi forces are attacking Misrata from the west and east side. (There is) heavy shelling," the rebel, called Saadoun, told Reuters by phone. From the west, he said tanks were advancing from the coastal road toward the city, which has been encircled and under bombardment for weeks.
"They are also trying to bring in soldiers," he said.
"From the east, they are shelling with mortars and artillery the port and areas around it. There is the main fuel tank in the port which feeds the central part of the city."
He said there were thousands of workers, mainly Egyptians, at the port who had fled and stayed there hoping for rescue.
The reports from Misrata could not be independently verified because Libyan authorities have barred reporters from the area.
Pro-Gaddafi forces had eased their bombardment of Misrata after Western strikes hit their positions, rebels said earlier.
REBELS SAY FORCES REACH BREGA
A rebel spokesman in Benghazi said insurgents on Saturday had reached the outskirts of the oil terminal town of Brega, 70 km (45 miles) west along the Mediterranean coast from Ajdabiyah. This report could not be independently confirmed.
"We are now preparing ourselves to liberate the rest of the cities and towns in the country," Colonel Ahmed Bani said. "Soon we will be in a position to hold another news conference, such as this one, in Tripoli, the capital of free Libya."
U.S. President Barack Obama, criticized by U.S. politicians across the spectrum for failing to communicate the goals of the air campaign, told Americans that the military mission in Libya was clear, focused and limited.
He said it had already saved countless civilian lives.
Obama said Libya's air defenses had been disabled, Gaddafi's forces were no longer advancing and in places like Benghazi, his forces had been pushed back.
"So make no mistake, because we acted quickly, a humanitarian catastrophe has been avoided and the lives of countless civilians -- innocent men, women and children -- have been saved," Obama said in a weekly radio address.
Obama, due to speak to Americans about Libya again on Monday evening, had also been faulted by fellow politicians for taking on another military mission in a Muslim country with the United States embroiled in the Iraq and Afghan wars.
NATO has agreed to take over that role in enforcing the no-fly zone and arms embargo against Libya, but final details have not yet been worked out for the military alliance to take over the air strikes on Gaddafi's military and its equipment.
In Tripoli, explosions were heard early on Saturday, signaling possible strikes by warplanes or missiles.
Libyan state television was broadcasting occasional, brief news reports of the air strikes. Mostly it showed footage -- some of it grainy images years old -- of cheering crowds waving green flags and carrying portraits of Gaddafi.
Neither Gaddafi nor his sons have been shown on state television since the Libyan leader made a speech from his Tripoli compound on Wednesday.
State TV said the "brother leader" had promoted all members of his armed forces and police "for their heroic and courageous fight against the crusader, colonialist assault."
(Additional reporting by Alexander Dziadosz, Maria Golovnina, Michael Georgy, Ibon Villelabeitia, Lamine Chikhi, Mariam Karouny and Patricia Zengerle; Writing by Tom Pfeiffer and Ibon Villelabeitia; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
