Rebels eye east Libya town
2011-03-21 07:20
Benghazi - Libyan rebels moved their forces near Ajdabiyah on Sunday after Western air strikes devastated Muammar Gaddafi's forces on a road leading up to the strategic eastern Libyan town.
Rebels said they were waiting for more Western strikes that they hoped would weaken the Libyan leader's forces further, before moving into the town they were driven from a few days ago under heavy fire.
"We have information that Gaddafi's tanks are ahead and we also have information that (Western forces) will bomb them, so we are waiting for the air strikes before we push forward," said 24-year-old rebel fighter Abdullah Zintani.
He and other rebels were positioned about 10km outside the town, which sits on the junction of a road leading north to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi and another route heading northeast across the desert to the oil town of Tobruk.
Rebels had pleaded for international military intervention to stop a government offensive driving them out of towns they held in the east. They had voiced increasing frustration with the failure of the West to act.
But they have been buoyed by the air strikes that have destroyed Gaddafi's tanks, armoured personnel carriers and rocket launchers that their relatively light weapons proved almost powerless to stop.
A UN resolution authorised setting up a no-fly zone and "all necessary measures", diplomatic speak for military action, to protect civilians.
"If it wasn't for them (Western forces) and their air strikes, Gaddafi would be still be bombing civilians," said Zintani, when asked if he expected the coalition of Western powers to help rebels in their advance or protect civilians.
Further north, back towards Benghazi, families clambered over the wreckage of army vehicles. Some shouted "Merci Beaucoup France", and others chanted: "We've won, we've won."
France led calls for military intervention and its planes were the first in Libyan airspace on Saturday.