Libyan rebels halted in advance on Sirte
Muammar Gaddafi's troops sent to save his home city from revolutionary forces as David Cameron praises British pilots carrying out air strikes
Rebel Libyan forces were halted about 80km from the city of Sirte on Monday as reinforcements loyal to Muammar Gaddafi were seen moving towards the strategically vital city.
Revolutionary forces had advanced by more than 150 miles in two days, helped by coalition air strikes, breaking the stalemate at Ajdabiya and paving the way for hundreds of men to stream forward along Libya's coastal road.
But despite a Libyan rebel claim that Sirte had been captured, there was no sign on Monday that the opposition was in control of the city, which marks the boundary between the east and west of Libya and has great symbolic importance as Gaddafi's home city.
Instead, pro-Gaddafi troops in Sirte were being rallied by forces travelling east from Tripoli and other strongholds in 4x4 vehicles with light weaponry mounted on the rear, a break from the heavier artillery used so far by Gaddafi's forces, which has been picked off with relative ease by coalition air strikes.
After another wave of air strikes targeted Sirte on Sunday night and Monday morning, prime minister David Cameron revealed RAF pilots had now flown more than 120 sorties and completed more than 250 hours of flight as part of the action in the country.
However, US military warned that the rebels' advance could be quickly reversed without continued coalition bombing. "The regime still vastly overmatches opposition forces militarily," General Carter F Ham, the highest-ranking American in the coalition operation, told the New York Times via email. "The regime possesses the capability to roll them back very quickly. Coalition air power is the major reason that has not happened."
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