BEN JAWWAD – Libyan rebel fighters appealed for western air strikes yesterday after a hail of machinegun and rocket fire sent them into a chaotic retreat from Muammar Gadafy’s forces east of his home town of Sirte.
Rebels waiting on the open desert road leaped behind dunes and mounds of earth and shot at Gadafy forces as they arrived.
As the onslaught grew, the insurgents ran to their pick-up trucks and sped off eastwards down the road to Ben Jawwad, 150km east of Sirte.
Bullets zipped overhead and shells landed on and near the road as the rebels, poorly trained and without a firm command structure, retreated more than 10km.
“A tactical withdrawal has taken place. This is just to take our troops out of reach of Col Gadafy’s militias and mercenary troops,” said Iman Bugaigis, spokeswoman for the rebel national council.
“Ben Jawwad is still under free Libya’s control but just west of Ben Jawwad is the front line of the fight,” she told a news conference in the main rebel stronghold, Benghazi.
Rebels said they regrouped on the eastern outskirts of Ben Jawwad and fired at the Gadafy forces, stalling their advance.
“The front line is in Ben Jawwad. Gadafy has not taken control of Ben Jawwad,” said rebel fighter Abdul Salam al-Assadi (25), a former government employee from Benghazi.
He called on western countries for air strikes on Gadafy positions, saying enemy rocket launchers meant they were unable to launch a counterattack and could lose more terrain.
Fifty-year-old engineer Mohamed al-Oman said: “Yesterday we made gains . . . because of the coalition air strikes. Today there were no air strikes so Gadafy took advantage and used his rocket launchers.”
Rebel fighters voiced defiance despite the latest rout by Col Gadafy’s better armed and organised troops.
The rebel fighters had raced along the Mediterranean coast retaking several oil terminals after western warplanes began air strikes on Gadafy positions in the east and west of the country on March 19th.
Their westward charge ended as they neared Sirte and Gadafy forces unleashed rockets, rocket-propelled grenades and medium calibre weapons to drive them back to the village of Nawfaliyah.
With much of the Sirte-area population thought to be loyal to Col Gadafy – most of his tribe is from there – air strikes ostensibly designed to protect civilians could be harder for western military officials to justify in the case of Sirte.
Insurgents said they faced open hostility from some civilians as they approached the city. Residents had fired on the retreating rebels from their houses.
Fleeing Nawfaliyah in a taxi, 49-year-old resident Mustafa Moussa said Gadafy forces appeared to control the town and were backed up by armed militias formed of local residents.
– (Reuters)