@bob_daneBob Dane
Fighters frustrated as #Gaddafiloyalists resist assault on #BaniWalid #Libyaedition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/afr…
Near Bani Walid, Libya (CNN) -- Frustration mounts in the scrubby desert outside Bani Walid, one of the last strongholds of Moammar Gadhafi's regime.
Anti-Gadhafi fighters who have been pushed back from an attempted assault on the town earlier Saturday kick their heels in the shade under a handful of trees by the road.
Pick-up trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns, civilian cars and an ambulance are parked up alongside. The roar of unseen jets overhead and thud of rockets in the near distance break the silence.
The fighters had gone to the edge of Bani Walid, southwest of Tripoli and one of three major towns in Libya that remain loyal to Gadhafi, but were apparently driven back.
They had encountered resistance from loyalist fighters who were more numerous, better equipped and better trained than they had expected, a National Transitional Council (NTC) official, Abdallah Kenshil, said.
The fighters' frustration at not getting closer to the prize spilled out in gunfire, as they pulled back to a position about 10 kilometers (6 miles) outside Bani Walid. The men shot everything they had into the air -- from AK-47s to anti-aircraft guns -- in a hail of fire more normally let off in celebration but here signalling a darker mood.
