Libya rebels begin advance on Brega: 11:33 AM http://bit.ly/o8Nx9Z
Libya's rebels began the first stages of an offensive on the oil town of Brega, hoping to dislodge loyalist troops and win a key strategic victory against Muammar Gaddafi. A rebel fighter was killed and 12 more were wounded at the Brega front line on Thursday, according to doctors at a hospital in near-by Ajdabiya, as fighters reported the first columns advancing beyond positions where they have been stuck for weeks.
The hospital manager, a doctor Ibrahim Dawas, said the wounded started arriving around 4.30pm local time (0030 AEST Friday) and continued coming in late into the night. Most of the injuries were from explosions and shrapnel from grad (rockets), he said. In one bed, Osama, a fighter lay with a Koran by his head as he woozily explained the shrapnel wounds to his leg.\
"We were advancing beyond the 40-kilometre line (from Ajdabiya), there were lots of us moving forward and then there were grad rockets incoming, Gaddafi still has a lot of grads. I was hit in the leg."Other injured soldiers were being wheeled through the hospital, one nursing a wounded shoulder, his green military shirt turned red.In an operating room, orderlies cleared pools of blood from the floor with mops.Earlier military sources said that the rebels would launch their main attack on the strategic oil port town on late Thursday or early Friday."We are preparing to enter Brega. The attack will come soon," said one rebel official, adding that the offensive had been slated for Wednesday night, but was delayed.Brega, nestled at the southeastern tip of the Gulf of Sirte, has changed hands multiple times during Libya's civil war, which soon enters its fifth month.The town's vast oil refinery and storage facilities are just one reason for its strategic value.
