Libya: rebels flee stronghold of Ajdabiya as Gaddafi closes net
Rebel forces fled defensive positions around their stronghold of Ajdabiya on Tuesday after coming under an intense, daylong bombardment of rockets and artillery.
Residents said Libyan government soldiers entered its streets before nightfall and quickly encircled the town.
Having lost a string of oil towns to Colonel Gaddafi's forces in the past week, commanders had said they planned to dig in to defend the key strategic town which controls the coast road to Benghazi – the rebels' de facto capital – and the desert road to Tobruk.
Without it, they must face the possibility of an overwhelming assault on Benghazi's million-strong population after seeing their series of rapid victories reversed by the government's superior firepower.
By early afternoon fighters were retreating from Ajdabiya amid desperate scenes of panic.
"Gaddafi is coming," screamed one revolutionary volunteer as he sprinted from a checkpoint on the far west of the town that had been picked out by incoming Kartoosha rockets.
Cars crammed with children filled the road to Benghazi as families fled the relentless government advance. They raced alongside pickups packed with soldiers and trucks fitted with anti-aircraft guns, as the rebels made a clumsy withdrawal.
All the while the crump, crump, crump of exploding rockets echoed through the streets.
At first they had fallen well short, each incoming rocket met with the roar of outgoing fire.
Groups of spectators cheered on every exchange.
But all day the rockets edged inexorably closer to the town under the watchful eye of a spotter plane high above in the sky until they ripped through the southern checkpoint, sending fighters running for cover.
"They are bombing everywhere. They are killing people, civilians, whatever," said Sherif Layas, 34, who was a marketing manager before he took up arms and joined Libya's revolution.
He added that Gaddafi's forces were about the reach the point where the rebels would be unable to resist without outside help.
"This is the death line, right here," he said.
Other fighters said they would melt away into the narrow, dusty streets to take on Gaddafi loyalists in urban warfare.
"There will be street fighting," said Saleh Mastoor, 40. "This is not over yet." A stream of ambulances ferried the wounded to the town's hospital, which had been evacuated only two days earlier.
Cars and rebel pickups screeched to a halt in front of the entrance, unloading fighters with bloody shrapnel wounds.
Libyan state television later claimed that forces loyal to Colonel Gaddafi were in control of Ajdabiya.
"The town of Ajdabiya has been cleansed of mercenaries and terrorists linked to the al-Qaeda organisation," it said, repeating government propaganda that the rebels were Islamist militants.
